diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 6090.txt | 14596 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 6090.zip | bin | 0 -> 276361 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/whtcn10.txt | 14617 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/whtcn10.zip | bin | 0 -> 275878 bytes |
7 files changed, 29229 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6090.txt b/6090.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b05b7fa --- /dev/null +++ b/6090.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14596 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of What Can She Do?, by E. P. Roe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Can She Do? + +Author: E. P. Roe + +Posting Date: September 8, 2012 [EBook #6090] +Release Date: July, 2004 +First Posted: November 4, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT CAN SHE DO? *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +The Works of E. P. Roe + +VOLUME TEN + +WHAT CAN SHE DO? + +ILLUSTRATED + + + + + +DEDICATION + + IF I WERE + TO DEDICATE THIS + BOOK IT WOULD BE TO THOSE + GIRLS WHO RESOLVE THAT THEY WILL NOT +PLAY THE POOR ROLE OF MICAWBER, THEIR ONLY CHANCE FOR + LIFE BEING THAT SOME ONE WILL "TURN UP" + WHOM THEY MAY BURDEN WITH + THEIR HELPLESS + WEIGHT + + + + +PREFACE + + + +This book was not written to amuse, to create purposeless excitement, +or to secure a little praise as a bit of artistic work. It would +probably fail in all these things. It was written with a definite, +earnest purpose, which I trust will be apparent to the reader. + +As society in our land grows older, and departs from primitive +simplicity, as many are becoming rich, but more poor, the changes that +I have sought to warn against become more threatening. The ordinary +avenues of industry are growing thronged, and it daily involves a more +fearful risk for a woman to be thrown out upon the world with +unskilled hands, an untrained mind, and an unbraced moral nature. +Impressed with this danger by some considerable observation, by a +multitude of facts that might wring tears from stony eyes, I have +tried to write earnestly if not wisely. + +Of necessity, it touches somewhat on a subject delicate and difficult +to treat--the "skeleton in the closet" of society. But the evil exists +on every side, and at some time or other threatens every home and +life. It is my belief that Christian teachers should not timidly or +loftily ignore it, for, mark it well, the evil does not let us or ours +alone. It is my belief that it should be dealt with in a plain, +fearless, manly manner. Those who differ with me have a right to their +opinion. + +There is one other thought that I wish to suggest. Much of the fiction +of our day, otherwise strong and admirable, is discouraging in this +respect. In the delineation of character, some are good, some are bad, +and some indifferent. We have a lovely heroine, a noble hero, +developing seemingly in harmony with the inevitable laws of their +natures. Associated with them are those of the commoner or baser sort, +also developing in accordance with the innate principles of their +natures. The first are presented as if created of finer clay than the +others. The first are the flowers in the garden of society, the latter +the weeds. According to this theory of character, the heroine must +grow as a moss-rose and the weed remain a weed. Credit is not due to +one; blame should not be visited on the other. Is this true? Is not +the choice between good and evil placed before every human soul, save +where ignorance and mental feebleness destroy free agency? In the +field of the world which the angels of God are to reap, is it not even +possible for the tares to become wheat? And cannot the sweetest and +most beautiful natural flowers of character borrow from the skies a +fragrance and bloom not of earth? So God's inspired Word teaches me. + +I have turned away from many an exquisite and artistic delineation of +human life, sighing, God might as well never have spoken words of +hope, warning, and strength for all there is in this book. The Divine +and human Friend might have remained in the Heavens, and never come to +earth in human guise, that He might press His great heart of world-wide sympathy against the burdened, suffering heart of humanity. He +need not have died to open a way of life for all. There is nothing +here but human motive, human strength, and earthly destiny. We protest +against this narrowing down of life, though it be done with the +faultless skill and taste of the most cultured genius. The children of +men are not orphaned. Our Creator is still "Emmanuel--God with us." +Earthly existence is but the prelude of our life, and even from this +the Divine artist can take much of the discord, and give an earnest of +the eternal harmonies. + +We all are honored with the privilege of "co-working with Him." + +If I in my little sphere can by this book lead one father to train his +children to be more strong and self-reliant, one mother to teach her +daughters a purer, more patient, more heroic womanhood--if I have +placed one more barrier in the tempter's way, and inspired one more +wholesome fear and principle in the heart of the tempted--if, by +lifting the dark curtain a moment, I can reveal enough to keep one +country girl from leaving her safe native village for unprotected life +in some great city--if I can add one iota toward a public opinion that +will honor useful labor, however humble, and condemn and render +disgraceful idleness and helplessness, however gilded--if, chief of +all, I lead one heavy-laden heart to the only source of rest, I shall +be well rewarded, whatever is said of this volume. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +CHAPTER I +THREE GIRLS + +CHAPTER II +A FUTURE OP HUMAN DESIGNING + +CHAPTER III +THREE MEN + +CHAPTER IV +THE SKIES DARKENING + +CHAPTER V +THE STORM THREATENING + +CHAPTER VI +THE WRECK + +CHAPTER VII +AMONG THE BREAKERS + +CHAPTER VIII +WARPED + +CHAPTER IX +A DESERT ISLAND + +CHAPTER X +EDITH BECOMES A "DIVINITY" + +CHAPTER XI +MRS. ALLEN'S POLICY + +CHAPTER XII +WAITING FOR SOME ONE TO TURN UP + +CHAPTER XIII +THEY TURN UP + +CHAPTER XIV +WE CAN'T WORK + +CHAPTER XV +THE TEMPTATION + +CHAPTER XVI +BLACK HANNIBAL'S WHITE HEART + +CHAPTER XVII +THE CHANGES OF TWO SHORT MONTHS + +CHAPTER XVIII +IGNORANCE LOOKING FOR WORK + +CHAPTER XIX +A FALLING STAR + +CHAPTER XX +DESOLATION + +CHAPTER XXI +EDITH'S TRUE KNIGHT + +CHAPTER XXII +A MYSTERY + +CHAPTER XXIII +A DANGEROUS STEP + +CHAPTER XXIV +SCORN AND KINDNESS + +CHAPTER XXV +A HORROR OF GREAT DARKNESS + +CHAPTER XXVI +FRIEND AND SAVIOUR + +CHAPTER XXVII +THE MYSTERY SOLVED + +CHAPTER XXVIII +EDITH TELLS THE OLD, OLD STORY + +CHAPTER XXIX +HANNIBAL LEARNS HOW HIS HEART CAN BE WHITE + +CHAPTER XXX +EDITH'S AND ARDEN'S FRIENDSHIP + +CHAPTER XXXI +ZELL + +CHAPTER XXXII +EDITH BRINGS THE WANDERER HOME + +CHAPTER XXXIII +EDITH'S GREAT TEMPTATION + +CHAPTER XXXIV +SAVED + +CHAPTER XXXV +CLOSING SCENES + +CHAPTER XXXVI +LAST WORDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THREE GIRLS + + + +It was a very cold blustering day in early January, and even brilliant +thronged Broadway felt the influence of winter's harshest frown. There +had been a heavy fall of snow which, though in the main cleared from +the sidewalks, lay in the streets comparatively unsullied and +unpacked. Fitful gusts of the passing gale caught it up and whirled it +in every direction. From roof, ledges, and window-sills, miniature +avalanches suddenly descended on the startled pedestrians, and the air +was here and there loaded with falling flakes from wild hurrying +masses of clouds, the rear-guard of the storm that the biting +northwest wind was driving seaward. + +It was early in the afternoon, and the great thoroughfare was almost +deserted. Few indeed would be abroad for pleasure in such weather, and +the great tide of humanity that must flow up and down this channel +every working day of the year under all skies had not yet turned +northward. + +But surely this graceful figure coming up the street with quick, +elastic steps has not the aspect of one driven forth by grave business +cares, nor in the natural course of things would one expect so young a +lady to know much of life's burdens and responsibilities. As she +passes I am sure the reader would not turn away from so pleasant a +vision, even if Broadway were presenting all its numberless +attractions, but at such a time would make the most of the occasion, +assured that nothing so agreeable would greet his eyes again that +sombre day. + +The fierce gusts make little impression on her heavy, close-fitting +velvet dress, and in her progress against the wind she appears so trim +and taut that a sailor's eye would be captivated. She bends her little +turbaned head to the blast, and her foot strikes the pavement with a +decision that suggests a naturally brave, resolute nature, and gives +abundant proof of vigor and health. A trimming of silver fox fur +caught and contrasted the snow crystals against the black velvet of +her dress, in which the flakes catch and mingle, increasing the sense +of lightness and airiness which her movements awaken, and were you +seeking a fanciful embodiment of the spirit of the snow, you might +rest satisfied with the first character that appears upon the scene of +my story. + +But on nearer view there was nothing spirit-like or even spirituelle +in her aspect, save that an extremely transparent complexion was +rendered positively dazzling by the keen air and the glow of exercise; +and the face was much too full and blooming to suggest the shadowy and +ethereal. + +When near Twenty-first Street she entered a fruit store and seemed in +search of some delicacy for an invalid. As her eye glanced around +among the fragrant tropical fruits that suggested lands in wide +contrast to the wintry scene without, she suddenly uttered a low +exclamation of delight, as she turned from them to old friends, all +the more welcome because so unexpected at that season. These were +nothing less than a dozen strawberries, in dainty baskets, decked out, +or more truly eked out, with a few green leaves. Three or four baskets +constituted the fruiterer's entire stock, and probably the entire +supply for the metropolis of America that day. + +She had scarcely time to lift a basket and inhale its delicious aroma, +before the proprietor of the store was in bowing attendance, quite as +openly admiring her carnation cheeks as she the ruby fruit The man's +tongue was, however, more decorous than his eyes, and to her question +as to price he replied: + +"_Only_ two dollars a basket, miss, and certainly they are beauties +for this season of the year. They are all I could get, and I don't +believe there is another strawberry in New York." + +"I will take them all," was the brief, decisive answer, and from a +costly portemonnaie she threw down the price, a proceeding which the +man noted in agreeable surprise, again curiously scanning the fair +face as he made up the parcel with ostentatious zeal. But his customer +was unconscious, or, more truly, indifferent to his admiration, and +seemed much more interested in the samples of choice fruit arranged on +every side. From one to another of these she flitted with the delicate +sensuousness of a butterfly, smelling them and touching them lightly +with the hand she had ungloved (which was as white as the snow +without), as if they had for her a peculiar fascination. + +"You seem very fond of fruit," said the merchant, his _amour propre_ +pleased by her evident interest in his stock. + +"I have ever had a passion for fine fruits and flowers," was the +reply, spoken with that perfect frankness characteristic of American +girls. "No, you need not send it; I prefer to take it with me." + +And with a slight smile, she passed out, leaving the fruiterer +chuckling over the thought that he had probably had the pleasantest +bit of trade on Broadway that dull day. + +Plunging through the drifts, our nymph of the snow resolutely crossed +the street and passed down to a flower store, but, instead of buying a +bouquet, ordered several pots of budding and blooming plants to be +sent to her address. She then made her way to Fifth Avenue and soon +mounted a broad flight of steps to one of its most stately houses. The +door yielded to her key, her thick walking boots clattered for a +moment on the marble floor, but could not disguise the lightness of +her step as she tripped up the winding stair and pushed open a +rosewood door leading into the upper hall. + +"Mother, mother," she exclaimed, "here is a treat for you that will +banish nerves, headache, and horrors generally. See what I have found +for you out in the wintry snows. Now am I not a good fairy for once?" + +"Oh, Edith, child, not so boisterous, please," responded a querulous +voice from a great easy-chair by the glowing grate, and a middle-aged +lady turned a white, faded face toward her daughter. + +"Forgive me, mother, but my tramp in the January storm has made me +feel rampantly well. I wish you could go out and take a run every day +as I do. You would then look younger and prettier than your daughters, +as you used to." + +The invalid shivered and drew her shawl closer around her, +complaining: + +"I think you have brought the whole month of January in with you. You +really must show more consideration, my dear, for if I should take +cold--" and the lady ended with a weary, suggestive sigh. + +In fact, Edith had entered the dim heavily-perfumed room like a gust +of wholesome air, her young blood tingling and electric with exercise, +and her heart buoyant with the thought of the surprise and pleasure +she had in store for her mother. But the manner in which she had been +received had already chilled her more than the biting blasts on +Broadway. She therefore opened her bundle and set out the little +baskets before her mother very quietly. The lady glanced at them for a +moment and then said, indifferently: + +"It is very good of you to think of me, my dear; they look very +pretty. I am sorry I cannot eat them, but their acid would only +increase my dyspepsia. Those raised in winter must be very sour. Ugh! +the thought of it sets my teeth on edge," and the poor, nervous +creature shrank deeper into her wrappings. + +"I am very sorry, mother, I thought they would be a great treat for +you," said Edith, quite crestfallen. "Never mind; I got some flowers, +and they will be here soon." + +"Thank you, dear, but the doctor says they are not healthy in a room--Oh, dear--that child! what shall I do!" + +The front door banged, there was a step on the stairs, but not so +light as Edith's had been, and a moment later the door burst open, and +"the child" rushed in like a mild whirlwind, exclaiming: + +"Hurrah! hurrah! school to the shades. No more teachers and tyrants +for me," and down went an armful of books with a bang on the table. + +"Oh, Zell!" cried Edith, "please be quiet; mother has a headache." + +"There, there, your baby will kiss it all away," and the irrepressible +young creature threw her arms around the bundle that Mrs. Allen had +made herself into by her many wrappings, and before she ceased, the +red pouting lips left the faintest tinge of their own color on the +faded cheeks of the mother. + +The lady endured the boisterous embrace with a martyr-like expression. +Zell was evidently a privileged character, the spoiled pet of the +household. But a new voice was now heard that was sharper than the +"pet" was accustomed to. + +"Zell, you are a perfect bear. One would think you had learned your +manners at a boys' boarding school." + +Zell's great black eyes blazed for a moment toward the speaker, who +was a young lady reclining on a lounge near the window, and who in +appearance must have been the counterpart of Mrs. Allen herself as she +had looked twenty-three years before. In contrast with her sharp, +annoyed tone, her cheeks and eyes were wet with tears. + +"What are you crying about?" was Zell's brusque response. "Oh, I see; +a novel. What a ridiculous old thing you are. I never saw you shed a +tear over real trouble, and yet every few days you are dissolved in +brine over Adolph Moonshine's agonies, and Seraphina's sentiment, +which any sensible person can see is caused by dyspepsia. No such +whipped syllabub for me, but real life." + +"And what does 'real life' mean for you, I would like to know, but +eating, dressing, and flirting?" was the acid retort. + +"Though you call me 'child,' I have lived long enough to learn that +eating, dressing, and flirting, and while you are about it you might +as well add drinking, is the 'real life' of most of the ladies of our +set. Indeed, if my poor memory does not fail me, I have seen you +myself take a turn at these things sufficiently often to make the +sublime scorn of your tone a little inconsistent." + +As these barbed arrows flew, the tears rapidly exhaled from the hot +cheeks of the young lady on the sofa. Her elegant languor vanished, +and she started up; but Mrs. Allen now interfered, and in tones harsh +and high, very different from the previous delicate murmurs, +exclaimed: + +"Children, you drive me wild. Zell, leave the room, and don't show +yourself again till you can behave yourself." + +Zell was now sobbing, partly in sorrow and partly in anger, but she +let fly a few more Parthian arrows over her shoulder as she passed +out. + +"This is a pretty way to treat one on their birthday. I came home with +heart as light as the snowflakes around me, and now you have spoiled +everything. I don't know how it is, but I always have a good time +everywhere else, but there is something in this house that often sets +one's teeth on edge," and the door banged appropriately with a +spiteful emphasis as the last word was spoken. + +"Poor child," said Edith, "it _is_ too bad that she should be so +dashed with cold water on her birthday." + +"She isn't a child," said the eldest sister, rising from the sofa and +sweeping from the room, "though she often acts like one, and a very +bad one too. Her birthday should remind her that if she is ever to be +a woman, it is time to commence," and the stately young lady passed +coldly away. Edith, went to the window and looked dejectedly out into +the early gloom of the declining winter day. Mrs. Allen sighed and +looked more nervous and uncomfortable than usual. + +The upholsterer had done his part in that elegant home, The feet sank +into the carpets as in moss. Luxurious chairs seemed to embrace the +form that sank into them. Everything, was padded, rounded, and +softened, except tongues and tempers. If wealth could remove the +asperities from these as from material things, it might well be +coveted. But this is beyond the upholsterer's art, and Mrs. Allen knew +little of the Divine art that can wrap up words and deeds with a +kindness softer than eider-down. + +"Mother's room," instead of being a refuge and a favorite haunt of +these three girls, was a place where, as we have seen, their "teeth +were set on edge." + +Naturally they shunned the place, visiting the invalid rather than +living with her; their reluctant feet impelled across the threshold by +a sense of duty rather than drawn by the cords of love. The mother +felt this in a vague, uncomfortable way, for mother love was there, +only it had seemingly turned sour, and instead of attracting her +children by sweetness and sympathy, she querulously complained to them +and to her husband of their neglect. He would sometimes laugh it off, +sometimes shrug his shoulders indifferently, and again harshly chide +the girls, according to his mood, for he varied much in this respect. +After being cool and wary all day in Wall Street, he took off the curb +at home; therefore the variations that never could be counted on. How +he would be at dinner did not depend on himself or any principle, but +on circumstances. In the main he was indulgent and kind, though quick +and passionate, brooking no opposition; and the girls were really more +attached to him and found more pleasure in his society than in their +mother's. Zelica, the youngest, was his special favorite, and he +humored and petted her at a ruinous rate, though often storming at +some of her follies. + +Mrs. Allen saw this preference of her husband, and was weak enough to +feel and show jealousy. But her complainings were ineffectual, for we +can no more scold people into loving us than nature could make buds +blossom by daily nipping them with frost. And yet she made her +children uncomfortable by causing them to feel that it was unnatural +and wrong that they did not care more for their mother. This was +especially true of Edith, who tried to satisfy her conscience, as we +have seen, by bringing costly presents and delicacies that were seldom +needed or appreciated. + +Edith soon became so oppressed by her mother's sighs and silence and +the heavy perfumed air, that she sprang up, and pressing a remorseful +kiss on the white thin face, said: + +"I must dress for dinner, mamma: I will send your maid," and vanished +also. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A FUTURE OF HUMAN DESIGNING + + + +The dining-room at six o'clock wore a far more cheerful aspect than +the invalid's room upstairs. It was furnished in a costly manner, but +more ostentatiously than good taste would dictate. You instinctively +felt that it was a sacred place to the master of the house, in which +he daily sacrificed to one of his chosen deities. + +The portly colored waiter, in dress coat and white vest, has just +placed the soup on the table, and Mr. Allen enters, supporting his +wife. He had sort of manly toleration for all her whims and +weaknesses. He had never indulged in any lofty ideas of womanhood, nor +had any special longings for her sympathy and companionship. Business +was the one engrossing thing of his life, and this he honestly +believed woman incapable of, from her very nature. It was true of his +wife, but due to a false education rather than to any innate +difficulties, and he no more expected her to comprehend and sympathize +intelligently with his business operations, than to see her go down to +Wall Street with him wearing his hat and coat. + +She had been the leading belle in his set years ago. He had admired +her immensely as a stylish, beautiful woman, and carried her off from +dozens of competitors, who were fortunate in their failure. He always +maintained a show of gallantry and deference; which, though but +veneer, was certainly better than open disregard and brutal neglect. + +So now, with a good-natured tolerance and politeness, he seated the +feeble creature in a cushioned chair at the table, treating her more +like a spoiled child than as a friend and companion. The girls +immediately appeared also, for they knew their father's weakness too +well to keep him waiting for his dinner. + +Zell bounded into his arms in her usual impulsive style, and the +father caressed her in a way that showed that his heart was very +tender toward his youngest child. + +"And so my baby is seventeen to-day," he said. "Well, well, how fast +we are growing old." + +The girl laughed; the man sighed. The one was on the threshold of what +she deemed the richest pleasures of life; the other had well-nigh +exhausted them, and for a moment realized it. + +Still he was in excellent spirits, for he had been unusually fortunate +that day, and had seen his way to an "operation" that promised a +golden future. He sat down therefore to the good cheer with not a +little of the spirit of the man in the parable, whose complacent +exhortation to his soul has ever been the language of false security +and prosperity. + +The father's open favoritism for Zell was another source of jealousy, +her sisters naturally feeling injured by it. Thus in this household +even human love was discordant and perverted, and the Divine love +unknown. What chance had character, that thing of slow growth, in such +an atmosphere? + +The popping of a champagne cork took the place of grace at the opening +of the meal, and the glasses were filled all around. In honor of +Zell's birthday they drank to her health and happiness. By no better +form or more suggestive ceremony could this Christian (?) family wish +their youngest member "God-speed" on entering the vicissitudes of a +new year of life. But what they did was done heartily, and every glass +was drained. To them it seemed very appropriate and her father said, +glancing admiringly at her flaming cheeks and dancing eyes-- +"This is just the thing to drink Zell's health in, for she is as full +of sparkle and effervescence as the champagne itself." + +Had he been a wiser and more thoughtful man, he would have carried the +simile further and remembered the fate of champagne when exposed. +However piquant and pleasing Zell's sparkle might be, it would hardly +secure success and safety for life. But in his creed a girl's first +duty was to be pretty and fascinating, and he was extremely proud of +the beauty of his daughters. It was his plan to marry them to rich men +who would maintain them in the irresponsible luxury that their mother +had enjoyed. + +Circumstances seemed to justify his security. The son of a rich man, +he had also inherited a taste for business and the art of making +money. Years of prosperity had confirmed his confidence, and he looked +complacently around upon his family and talked of the future in +sanguine tones. + +He was a man considerably past his prime, and his florid face and +portly form indicated that he was in the habit of doing ample justice +to the good cheer before him. Intense application to business in early +years and indulgence of appetite in later life had seriously impaired +a constitution naturally good. He reminded you of a flower fully blown +or of fruit overripe. + +"Since you have permitted Zell to leave school, I suppose she must +make her debut soon," said Mrs. Allen with more animation than usual +in her tone. + +"Oh, certainly," cried Zell, "on Edith's birthday, in February. We +have arranged it all, haven't we, Edith?" + +"Heigho! then I am to have no part in the matter," said her father. + +"Yes, indeed, papa," cried the saucy girl, "you are to have no end of +kisses, and a very long bill." + +This sally pleased him immensely, for it expressed his ideal of +womanly return for masculine affection, at least the bills had never +been wanting in his experience. But, mellowed by wine and elated by +the success of the day, he now prepared to give the coup that would +make a far greater sensation in the family circle than even a debut or +a birthday party. So, glancing from one eager face to another (for +between the wine and the excitement even Mrs. Allen was no longer a +colorless, languid creature, ready to faint at the embrace of her +child), he said with a twinkle in his eye-- + +"Well, go to your mother about the party. She is a veteran in such +matters. But let there be some limit to the length of the bill, or I +can't carry out another plan I have in view for you." + +Chorus--"What is that?" + +Coolly filling his glass, he commenced leisurely sipping, while +glancing humorously from one to another, enjoying their impatient +expectancy. + +"If you don't tell us right away," cried Zell, bouncing up, "I'll pull +your whiskers without mercy." + +"Papa, you will throw mother into a fever. See how flushed her face +is!" said Laura, the eldest daughter, speaking at the same time two +words for herself. + +The face of Edith, with dazzling complexion all aglow, and large dark +eyes lustrous with excitement, was more eloquent than words could have +been, and the bon vivant drank in her expression with as much zest as +he sipped his wine. Perhaps it was well for him to make the most of +that little keen-edged moment of bright anticipation and bewildering +hope, for what he was about to propose would cost him many thousands, +and exile him from business, which to him was the very breath of life. + +But Mrs. Allen's matter-of-fact voice brought things to a crisis, for +with an injured air she said: + +"How can you, George, when you know the state of my nerves?" + +"What I propose, mamma, will cure your nerves and everything else, for +it is nothing less than a tour through Europe." + +There was a shriek of delight from the girls, in which even the +exquisite Laura joined, and Mrs. Allen trembled with excitement. Apart +from the trip itself, they considered it a sort of disgrace that a +family of their social position and wealth had never been abroad. +Therefore the announcement was doubly welcome. Hitherto Mr. Allen's +devotion to business had made it impossible, and he had given them no +hints of the near consummation of their wishes. But he had begun to +feel the need of change and rest himself, and this weighed more with +him than all their entreaties. + +In a moment Zell had her arms about his neck, and her sisters were +throwing him kisses across the table. His wife, looking unusually +gratified, said: + +"You are a sensible man at last," which was a great deal for Mrs. +Allen to say. + +"Why, mamma," exclaimed her husband, elevating his eyebrows in comic +surprise, "that I should live to hear you say that!" + +"Now don't be silly," she replied, joining slightly in the laugh at +her expense, "or we shall think that you have taken too much +champagne, and that this Europe business is all a hoax." + +"Wait till you have been outside of Sandy Hook an hour, and you will +find everything real enough then. I think I see the elegant ladies of +my household about that time." + +"For shame, papa! what an uncomfortable suggestion over a dinner +table!" said the fastidious Laura. "Picture the ladies of your +household in the salons of Paris. I promise we will do you credit +there." + +"I hope so, for I fear I shall have need of _credit_ when you all +reach that Mecca of women." + +"It's no more the Mecca of women than Wall Street is the Jerusalem of +men. What you are all going to do in Heaven without Wall Street, I +don't see." + +Mr. Allen gave his significant shrug and said, "I don't meet notes +till they are due," which was his way of saying: "Sufficient unto the +day is the evil thereof." + +"The salons of Paris!" said Edith, with some disdain. "Think of the +scenery, the orange-groves, and vineyards that we shall see, the +Alpine flowers--" + +"I declare," interrupted Zell, "I believe that Edith would rather see +a grape-vine and orange-tree than all the toilets of Paris." + +"I shall enjoy seeing both," was the reply, "and so have the advantage +of you in having two strings to my bow." + +"By the way, that reminds me to ask how many beaux you now have on the +string," said the father. + +Edith tossed her head with a pretty blush and said: "Pity me, my +father; you know I am always poor at arithmetic." + +"You will take up with a crooked stick after all. Now Laura is a +sensible girl, like her mother, and has picked out one of the richest, +longest-headed fellows on the street." + +"Indeed!" said his wife. "I do not see but you are paying yourself a +greater compliment than either Laura or me." + +"Oh, no, a mere business statement. Laura means business, and so does +Mr. Goulden." + +Laura looked annoyed and said: + +"Pa, I thought you never talked business at home." + +"Oh, this is a feminine phase that women understand. I want your +sisters to profit by your good example." + +"I shall marry an Italian count," cried Zell. + +"Who will turn out a fourth-rate Italian barber, and I shall have to +support you both. But I won't do it. You would have to help him +shave." + +"No, I should transform him into a leader of banditti, and we would +live in princely state in the Apennines. Then we would capture you, +papa, and carry you off to the mountains, and I would be your jailer, +and give you nothing but turtle-soup, champagne, and kisses till you +paid a ransom that would break Wall Street." + +"I would not pay a cent, but stay and eat you out of house and home." + +"I never expect to marry," said Edith, "but some day I am going to +commence saving my money--now don't laugh, papa, for I could be +economical if I once made up my mind"--and the pretty head gave a +decisive little nod. + +"I am going to save my money and buy a beautiful place in the country +and make it as near like the garden of Eden as possible." + +"Snakes will get into it as of old," was Mrs. Allen's cynical remark. + +"Yes, that is woman's experience with a garden," said her husband with +a mock sigh. + +Popping off the cork of another bottle, he added, "I have got ahead of +you, Edith. I own a place in the country, much as I dislike that kind +of property. I had to take it to-day in a trade, and so am a +landholder in Pushton--prospect, you see, of my becoming a rural +gentleman (Squire is the title, I believe), and of exchanging stock in +Wall Street for the stock of a farm. Here's to my estate of three +acres with a story and a half mansion upon it! Perhaps you would +rather go up there this summer than to Paris, my dear?" to his wife. + +Mrs. Allen gave a contemptuous shrug as if the jest were too +preposterous to be answered, but Edith cried: + +"Fill my glass; I will drink to your country place. I know the cottage +is a sweet rustic little box, all smothered with vines and roses like +one I saw last June." Then she added in sport, "I wish you would give +it to me for my birthday present. It would make such a nice porter's +lodge at the entrance to my future Eden." + +"Are you in earnest?" asked the father suddenly. + +Both were excited by the wine they had drunk. She glanced at her +father, and saw that he was in a mood to say yes to anything, and, +quick as thought, she determined to get the place if possible. + +"Of course I am. I would rather have it than all the jewelry in New +York." She was over-supplied with that style of gift. + +"You shall have it then, for I am sure I don't want it, and am +devoutly thankful to be rid of it." + +Edith clapped her hands with a delight scarcely less demonstrative +than that of Zell in her wildest moods. + +"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Allen; "the idea of giving a young lady such an +elephant!" + +"Bat remember," continued her father, "you must manage it yourself, +pay the taxes, keep it repaired, insured, etc. There is a first-class +summer hotel near it. Next year, after we get back from Europe, we +will go up there and stay awhile. You shall then take possession, +employ an agent to take care of it, who by the way will cheat you to +your heart's content. I will wager you a box of gloves that, before a +year passes, you will try to sell the ivy-twined cottage for anything +you can get, and will be thoroughly cured of your mania for country +life." + +"I'll take you up," said Edith, in great excitement, "but remember, I +want my deed on my birthday." + +"All right," said Mr. Allen, laughing. "I will transfer it to you to-morrow, while I think of it. But don't try to trade it off to me +before next month for a new dress." + +Edith was half wild over her present. Many and varied were her +questions, but her father only said: + +"I don't know much about it. I did not listen to half the man said, +but I remember he stated there was a good deal of fruit on the place, +for it made me think of you at the time. Bless you, I could not stop +for such small game. I am negotiating a large and promising operation +which you understand about as well as farming. It will take some time +to carry it through, but when finished we will start for the 'salons +of Paris.'" + +"I half believe," said Laura, with a covert sneer, "that Edith would +rather go up to her farm of three acres." + +"I am well satisfied as papa has arranged it," said the practical +girl. "Everything in its place, and get all out of life you can, is my +creed." + +"That means, get all out of me you can, don't it, sly puss?" laughed +the father, well pleased, though, with the worldly wisdom of the +speech. + +"Kisses, kisses, unlimited kisses, and consider yourself well repaid," +was the arch rejoinder; and not a few, looking at her as she then +appeared, would have coveted such bargains. So her father seemed to +think as he gazed admiringly at her. + +But something in Zell's pouting lips and vexed expression caught his +eye, and he said good-naturedly: + +"Heigho, youngster, what has brought a thunder-cloud across your saucy +face?" + +"In providing for birthdays to come, I guess you have forgotten your +baby's birthday present." + +"Come here, you envious elf," said her father, taking something from +his pocket. Like light she flashed out from under the cloud and was at +his side in an instant, dimpling, smiling, and twinkling with +expectation, her black eyes as quick and restless as her father was +deliberate and slow in undoing a dainty parcel. + +"Oh, George, do be quick about it, or Zell will explode. You both make +me nervous," said Mrs. Allen fretfully. + +Suddenly pressing open a velvet casket, Mr. Allen hung a jewelled +watch with a long gold chain about his favorite's neck, while she +improvised a hornpipe around his chair. + +"There," said he, "is something that is worth more than Edith's farm, +tumble-down cottage, roses, and all. So remember that those lips were +made to kiss, not to pout with." + +Zell put her lips to proper uses to that extent that Mrs. Allen began +to grow jealous, nervous, and out of sorts generally, and having +finished her chocolate, rose feebly from the table. Her husband +offered his arm and the family dinner party broke up. + +And yet, take it altogether, each one was in higher spirits than +usual, and Zell and Edith were in a state of positive delight. They +had received costly gifts that specially gratified their peculiar +tastes, and these, with the promise of a grand party and a trip to +Europe, youthful buoyancy, and champagne, so dilated their little +feminine souls that Mrs. Allen's fears of an explosion of some kind +were scarcely groundless. They dragged their stately sister Laura, now +unwontedly bland and affable, to the piano, and called for the +quickest and most brilliant of waltzes, and a moment later their lithe +figures flowed away in a rhythm of motion, that from their exuberance +of feeling, was as fantastic as it was graceful. + +Mr. Allen assisted his wife to her room and soon left her in an +unusually contented frame of mind to develop strategy for the coming +party. Mrs. Allen's nerves utterly incapacitated her for the care of +her household, attendance upon church, and such humdrum matters, but +in view of a great occasion like a "grand crush ball," where among the +luminaries of fashion she could become the refulgent centre of a +constellation which her fair daughters would make around her, her +spirit rose to the emergency. When it came to dress and dressmakers +and all the complications of the campaign now opening, notwithstanding +her nerves, she could be quite Napoleonic. + +Her husband retired to the library, lighted a choice Havana, skimmed +his evening papers, and then as usual went to his club. + +This, as a general thing, was the extent of the library's literary +uses. The best authors in gold and Russia smiled down from the black +walnut shelves, but the books were present rather as furniture than +from any intrinsic value in themselves to the family. They were given +prominence on the same principle that led Mrs. Allen to give a certain +tone to her entertainments by inviting many literary and scientific +men. She might be unable to appreciate the works of the _savants_, but +as they appreciated the labors of her masterly French cook, many +compromised the matter by eating the _petits soupers_ and shrugging +their shoulders over the entertainers. + +And yet the Allens were anything but vulgar upstarts. Both husband and +wife were descended from old and wealthy New York families. They had +all the polish which life-long association with the fashionable world +bestows. What was more, they were highly intelligent, and, in their +own sphere, gifted people. Mr. Allen was a leader in business in one +of the chief commercial centres, and to lead in legitimate business in +our day requires as much ability, indeed we may say genius, as to lead +in any order department of life. He would have shown no more ignorance +in the study, studio, and laboratory, than their occupants would have +shown in the counting-room. That to which he devoted his energies he +had become a master in. It is true he had narrowed down his life to +little else than business. He had never acquired a taste for art and +literature, nor had he given himself time for broad culture. But we +meet narrow artists, narrow clergymen, narrow scientists just as +truly. If you do not get on their hobby and ride with them, they seem +disposed to ride over you. Indeed, in our brief life with its fierce +competitions, few other than what are known as "one idea" men have +time to succeed. Even genius must drive with tremendous and +concentrated energy, to distance competitors. Mr. Allen was quite as +great in his department as any of the lions that his wife lured into +her parlors were in theirs. + +Mrs. Allen was also a leader in her own chosen sphere, or rather in +the one to which she had been educated. Given _carte-blanche_ in the +way of expense, she would produce a brilliant entertainment which few +could surpass. The coloring and decorations of her rooms would not be +more rich, varied, or in better taste, than the diversity, and yet +harmony of the people she would bring together by her adroit +selections. She had studied society, and for it she lived, not to make +it better, not to elevate its character, and tone down its +extravagances, but simply to shine in it, to be talked about and +envied. + +Both husband and wife had achieved no small success, and to succeed in +such a city as New York in their chosen departments required a certain +amount of genius. The _savants_ had a general admiration for Mrs. +Allen's style and taste, but found that she had nothing to offer on +the social exchange of her parlors but fashion's smallest chit-chat. +They had a certain respect for Mr. Allen's wealth and business power, +but, having discussed the news of the day, they would pass on, and the +people during the intervals of dancing drifted into congenial schools +and shoals, like fish in a lake. Mr. and Mrs. Allen had a vague +admiration for the learning of the scholars and the culture of the +artists, but would infinitely prefer marrying their daughters to +downtown merchant princes. + +Take the world over, perhaps all classes of people are despising +others quite as much as they are despised themselves. + +But when the French cook appeared upon the scene, then was produced +your true democracy. Then was shown a phase of life into which all +entered with a zest that proved the common tie of humanity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THREE MEN + + + +While Mrs. Allen was planning the social pyrotechnics that should +dazzle the fashionable world, Edith and Zell were working off their +exuberant spirits in the manner described in the last chapter, which +was as natural to their city-bred feet as a wild romp is to a country +girl. + +The brilliant notes of the piano and the rustle of their silks had +rendered them oblivious to the fact that the door-bell had rung twice, +and that three gentlemen were peering curiously through the half-open +door. They were evidently frequent and favored visitors, and had +motioned the old colored waiter not to announce them, and he +reluctantly obeyed. + +For a moment they feasted their eyes on the scene, as the two girls, +with twining arms and many innovations on the regular step, whirled +through the rooms, and then Zell's quick eye detected them. + +Pouncing upon the eldest gentleman of the party, she dragged him from +his ambush, while the others also entered. The youngest approached the +blushing, panting Edith with an almost boyish confidence of manner, as +if assured of a welcome, while the remaining gentleman, who was +verging toward middle age, quietly glided to the piano and gave his +hand to Laura, who greeted him with a cordiality scarcely to be +expected from so stately a young lady. + +The laws of affinity and selection were evidently in force here, and +as the reader must surmise, long acquaintance had led to the present +easy and intimate relations. + +"What do you mean," cried Zell, dragging under the gaslight her +cavalier, who assumed much penitence and fear, "by thus rudely and +abruptly breaking in upon the retirement of three secluded young +ladies?" + +"At their devotions," added the cynical voice of the gentleman at the +piano, who was no other than Mr. Goulden, Laura's admirer. + +Zell's attendant threw himself in the attitude of a suppliant and said +deprecatingly: + +"Nay, but we are astronomers." + +"That's a fib, and not a very white one either," she retorted. "I +don't believe you ever look toward heaven for anything." + +"What need of looking thither for heavenly bodies?" he replied in a +low, meaning tone, regarding with undisguised admiration her glowing +cheeks. "Moreover, I don't like telescopic distances," he continued, +with a half-made motion to put his arm around her waist. + +"Come," she said, pirouetting out of his reach, "remember I am no +longer a child, I am seventeen to-day." + +"Would that you might never be a day older in appearance and +feelings!" + +"Are you willing to leave me so far behind?" she asked with some +maliciousness. + +"No, but you would make me a boy again. If old Ponce de Leon had met a +Miss Zell, he would soon have forsaken the swamps and alligators of +Florida." "Oh, what a watery, scaly compliment! Preferred to swamps +and alligators! Who would have believed it?" + +"I am not blind to your pretty, wilful blindness. You know I likened +you to something too divine and precious to be found on earth." + +"Which is still true in the carrying out of your marvellously mixed +metaphors. I must lend you my rhetoric book. But as your meaning dawns +on me, I see that you are symbolized by old Ponce. I shall look in the +history for the age of the ancient Spaniard to-morrow, and then I +shall know how old you are, a thing I could never find out." + +As with little jets of silvery laughter and with butterfly motion she +hovered round him, the very embodiment of life and beautiful youth, +she would have made, to an artist's eye, a very true realization of +the far-famed mythical fountain. + +And yet, as a moment later she confidingly took his arm and strolled +toward the library, it was evident that all her flutter and hesitancy, +her seeming freedom and mimic show of war, were like those of some +bright tropical bird fascinated by a remorseless serpent whose intent +eyes and deadly purpose are creating a spell that cannot be resisted. + +Mr. Van Dam, upon whose arm she was leaning, was one of the worst +products of artificial metropolitan life. He had inherited a name +which ancestry had rendered honorable, but which he to the utmost +dishonored, and yet so adroitly, so shrewdly respecting fashion's +code, though shunning nothing wrong, that he did not lose the _entree_ +of the gilded homes of those who called themselves "the best society." + +True, it was whispered that he was rather fast, that he played heavily +and a trifle too successfully, and that he lived the life of anything +but a saint at his luxurious rooms. "But then," continued society, +openly and complacently, "he is so fine-looking, so courtly and +polished, so well connected, and what is still more to the point, my +dear, he is reputed to be immensely wealthy, so we must not heed these +rumors. After all, it is the way of these young men of the world." + +Thus "the best society" that would have politely frozen out of its +parlors the Chevalier Bayard, _sans peur et sans reproche_, had he not +appeared in the latest style, with golden fame rather than golden +spurs, welcomed Mr. Van Dam. Indeed, not a few forced exotic belles, +who had prematurely developed in the hothouse atmosphere of wealth and +extravagance, regarded him as a sort of social lion; and his +reticence, with a certain mystery in which he shrouded his evil life, +made him all the more fascinating. He was past the prime of life, +though exceedingly well preserved, for he was one of those cool, +deliberate votaries of pleasure that reduce amusement to a science, +and carefully shun all injurious excess. While exceedingly deferential +toward the sex in general, and bestowing compliments and attentions as +adroitly as a financier would place his money, he at the same time +permitted the impression to grow that he was extremely fastidious in +his taste, and had never married because it had never been his fortune +to meet the faultless being who could satisfy his exacting eyes. Any +special and continued admiration on his part therefore made its +recipient an object of distinction and envy to very many in the unreal +world in which he glided serpent-like, rather than moved as a man. To +morbid minds his rumored evil deeds became piquant eccentricities, and +the whispers of the oriental orgies that were said to take place in +his bachelor apartments made him an object of a curious interest, and +many sighed for the opportunity of reforming so distinguished a +sybarite. + +On Edith's entrance into society he had been much impressed by her +beauty, and had gradually grown quite attentive, equally attracted by +her father's wealth. But she, though with no clear perception of his +character, and with no higher moral standard than that of her set, +instinctively shrank from the man. Indeed, in some respects, they were +too much alike for that mysterious attraction that so often occurs +between opposites. Not that she had his unnatural depravity, but like +him she was shrewd, practical, resolute, and was controlled by her +judgment rather than by her impulses. Her vanity, of which she had no +little share, led her to accept his attentions to a certain point, but +the keen man of the world soon saw that his "little game," as in his +own vernacular he styled it, would not be successful, and he was the +last one to sigh in vain or mope an hour in lovelorn melancholy. While +ceasing to press his suit, he continued to be a frequent and familiar +visitor at the house, and thus his attention was drawn to Zell, who, +though young, had developed early in the stimulating atmosphere in +which she lived. At first he petted and played with ner as a child, as +she wilfully flitted in and out of the parlors, whether her sisters +wanted her or not. He continually brought her _bon-bons_ and like +fanciful trifles, till at last, in jest, the family called him Zell's +"ancient beau." + +But during the past year it had dawned on him that the child he petted +on account of her beauty and sprightliness, was rapidly becoming a +brilliant woman, who would make a wife far more to his taste than her +equally beautiful but matter-of-fact sister. Therefore he warily, so +as not to alarm the jealous father, but with all the subtle skill of +which he was master, sought to win her affections, knowing that she +would have her own way when she knew what way she wanted. + +For Zell this unscrupulous man had a peculiar fascination. He petted +and flattered her to her heart's content, and thus made her the envy +of her young acquaintances, which was incense indeed to her vain +little soul. He never lectured or preached to her on account of her +follies and nonsense, as her elderly friends usually did, but gave to +her wild, impulsive moods free rein. Where a true friend would have +cautioned and curbed, he applauded and incited, causing Zell to +mistake extravagance in language and boldness in manner for spirit and +brilliancy. Laura and Edith often remonstrated with her, but she did +not heed them. Indeed, she feared no one save her father, and Mr. Van +Dam was propriety itself when he was present, which was but seldom. +What with his business, and club, and Mrs. Allen's nerves, the girls +were left mainly to themselves. + +What wonder that there are so many shipwrecks, when young, heedless, +inexperienced hands must steer, unguided, through the most perilous +and treacherous of seas? + +Mr. Allen's elegant, costly home was literally an unguarded fold, many +a laborer, living in a tenement house, doing more to shield his +daughters from the evil of the world. + +To Mr. Van Dam, Zell was a perfect prize. Though he had sipped at the +cup of pleasure so leisurely and systematically, he was getting down +to the dregs. His taste was becoming palled, and satiety was burdening +him with its leaden weight. But as the child he petted developed daily +toward womanhood, he became interested, then fascinated by the +process. Her beauty was so brilliant, her excessive sprightliness so +contagious, that he felt his sluggish pulses stir and tingle with +excitement the moment he came into her presence. Her wild, varying +moods kept him constantly on the _qui vive_, and he would say in +confidence to one of his intimate cronies: + +"The point is, Hal, she is such a spicy, piquant contrast to the +insipid society girls, who have no more individuality than fashion +blocks in Broadway windows." + +He liked the kittenish young creature all the more because her +repartee was often a little cutting. If she had always struck him with +a velvet paw, the thing would have grown monotonous, but he +occasionally got a scratch that made him wince, cool and brazen as he +was. But, after all, he daily saw that he was gaining power over her, +and the manner in which the frank-hearted girl took his arm and leaned +upon it spoke volumes to the experienced man. While he habitually wore +a mask, Zell could conceal nothing, and across her April face flitted +her innermost thoughts. + +If she had had a _mother_, she might, even in the wilderness of earth, +have become a blossom fit for heavenly gardens, but as it was, her +wayward nature, so full of dangerous beauty, was left to run wild. + +Edith was beginning to be troubled at Zell's intimacy with Mr. Van +Dam, and to conceive a growing dislike for him mingled with suspicion. +As for Laura, the eldest, she was like her mother, too much wrapped up +in herself to have many thoughts for any one else, and they all +regarded Zell as a mere child still. Mr. Allen, who would have been +very anxious had Zell been receiving the attentions of some penniless +young clerk or artist, laughed at her "flirtation with old Van Dam" as +an eminently safe proceeding. + +But on the present evening her sisters were too much occupied with +their own friends to give Zell or her dangerous admirer much +attention. As yet no formal engagement had bound any of them, but an +intimacy and mutual liking, tending to such a result, was rapidly +growing. + +In Edith's case the attraction of contrasts was again shown. Augustus +Elliot, the youth who had approached her with such confidence and +grace, was quite as stylish a personage as herself, and that was +saying a great deal. But every line of his full handsome face, as well +as the expression of his light blue eyes, showed that he had less +decision in the whole of his luxurious nature than she in her little +finger. Self-indulgence and good-natured vanity were unmistakably his +characteristics. To yield, not for the good of others, but because not +strong enough to stand sturdily alone, was the law of his being. If he +could ever have been kept under the influence of good and stronger +natures, who would have developed his naturally kind heart and good +impulses into something like principle, he might have had a safe and +creditable career. But he was the idol of a foolish, fashionable +mother, and the pet of two or three sisters who were empty-brained +enough to think their handsome brother the perfection of mankind; and +by eye, manner, and often the plainest words, they told him as much, +and he had at last come to believe them. Why should they not? He was +faultless in his own dress, faultless in his criticism of a lady's +dress, taking the prevailing fashion as the standard. He was perfectly +versed in the polite slang of the day. He scented afar off and +announced the slightest change in the mode, so that his elegant +sisters could appear on the avenue in advance of the other fashion-plates. As they sailed away on a sunny afternoon in their gorgeous +plumage, the envy of many a competing belle, they would say: + +"Isn't he a duck of a brother to give us a hint of a change so early? +After all there is no eye or taste like that of man when once +perfected." + +And then they knew him to be equally _au fait_ on the flavor of wines, +the points of horses, the merits of every watering-place, and all the +other lore which in their world gave pre-eminence. They had been +educated to have no other ideal of manhood, and if an earnest, +straight forward man, with a purpose, had spoken out before them, they +would have regarded him as an uncouth monster. + +Notwithstanding all his vanity, "Gus," as he was familiarly called, +was a very weak man, and though he would not acknowledge it, even to +himself, instinctively recognized the fact. He continually attached +himself to strong, resolute natures, by whom, if they were adroit, he +could easily be made a tool of. He took a great fancy to Edith from +the first hour of their acquaintance, and she soon obtained a strong +influence over him. She instinctively detected his yielding +disposition, and liked him the better for it, while his good-nature +and abundant supply of society talk made him a general favorite. + +When every one whispered, "What a handsome couple they would make!" +and she found him so looked up to and quoted in the fashionable world, +she began to entertain quite an admiration as well as liking for him, +though she saw more and more clearly that there was nothing in him +that she could lean upon. + +Gus's parents, who knew that the Allens were immensely wealthy, urged +on the match, but Mr. Allen, aware that the Elliots were living to the +extent of their means, discouraged it, plainly telling Edith his +reasons. + +"But," said Edith, at the same time showing her heart in the practical +suggestion, "could not Gus go into business himself?" + +"The worst thing he could do," said the keen Mr. Allen. "He has tried +it a few times, I have learned, but has not one business +qualification. He could not keep himself in toothpicks. His mother and +sisters have spoiled him. He is nothing but a society man. Mr. Elliot +has not a word to say at home. His business is to make money for them +to spend, and a tough time he has to keep up with them. You girls must +marry men who can take care of you, unless you wish to support your +husbands." + +Mr. Allen's verdict was true, and Edith felt that it was. When a boy, +Gus could get out of lessons by running to his mother with a plea of +headache or any trifle, and in youth he had escaped business in like +manner. His father had tried him a few times in his office, but was +soon glad to fall in with his wife's opinion, that _her_ son "had +too much spirit and refinement for plodding humdrum business, that he +was a born gentleman and suited only to elegant leisure," and as his +gentleman son only did mischief downtown, the poor over-worked father +was glad to have him out of the way, for he with difficulty made both +ends meet, as it was. Hoping he would do better with strangers, he +had, by personal influence, procured him situations elsewhere, but +between the mother's weakness and the young man's confirmed habits of +idleness, it always ended by Gus saying to his employers: + +"I'm going of on a little trip--by-by," at which they gave a sigh of +relief. It had at last become a recognized fact that Gus must marry an +heiress, this being about the only way for so fine a gentleman to +achieve the fortune that he could not stoop to toil for. As he admired +himself complacently in the gilded mirror that ornamented his +dressing-room, he felt that a wise selection would be his only +difficulty, and though an heiress is something of a _rara avis_, +he sternly resolved to cage one with such heavy golden plumage that +even his mother, whom no one satisfied save himself, would give a sigh +of perfect content. When at last he met Edith Allen, it seemed as if +inclination might happily blend with his lofty sense of duty, and he +soon became Edith's devoted and favored attendant. And yet, as we have +seen, our heroine was not the sentimental style of girl that falls +hopelessly and helplessly in love with a man for some occult reason, +not even known to herself, and who mopes and pines till she is +permitted to marry him, be he fool, villain, or saint. Edith was fully +capable of appreciating and weighing her father's words, and under +their influence nearly decided to chill her handsome but helpless +admirer into a mere passing acquaintance; but when he next appeared +before her in his uniform, as an officer in one of the "crack" city +regiments, her eyes, taste, and vanity, and somehow her heart, so +pleaded for him that, so far from being an icicle, she smiled on him +like a July sun. + +But whenever he sought to press his suit into something definite, she +evaded and shunned the point, as only a feminine diplomatist can. In +fact, Gus, on account of his vanity, was not a very urgent suitor, as +the idea of final refusal was preposterous. He regarded himself as +virtually accepted already. Meanwhile Edith for once in her life was +playing the role of Micawber, and "waiting for something to turn up." +And something had, for this trip to Europe would put time and space +between them, and gently cure both of their folly, as she deemed it. +Folly! She did not realize that Gus regarded himself as acting on +sound business principles and a strong sense of duty, as well as +obeying the impulses of what heart he had. The sweet approval of +conscience and judgment attended his action, while both condemned her. + +As Gus approached this evening, she felt a pang of commiseration that +not only were they separated by her father's and her own disapproval, +but that soon the briny ocean would also be between them, and she was +unusually kind. She decided to play with her poor little mouse till +the last, and then let absence remedy all. Her mind was quick, if not +very profound. + +As Mr. Goulden leaned across the corner of the piano, and paid the +blushing Laura some delicate compliments, one could not but think of +an adroit financier, skilfully placing some money. There was nothing +ardent, nothing incoherent and lover-like, in his carefully modulated +tones, and nicely selected words that meant much or little, as he +might afterward decide. Mr. Goulden always knew what he was about, as +truly in a lady's boudoir as in Wall Street. The stately, elegant +Laura suited his tastes; her father's financial status _had_ suited +him also. But he, who through his agents knew all that was going on in +Wall Street, was aware that Mr. Allen had engaged in a very heavy +speculation, which, though promising well at the time, might, by some +unexpected turn of the wheel, wear a very different aspect. He would +see the game through before proceeding with his own, and in the +meantime, by judicious attention, hold Laura well in hand. + +In that brilliantly lighted parlor none of these currents and counter +currents were apparent on the surface. That was like the ripple and +sparkle of a summer sea in the sunlight. Every year teaches us +something of what is hidden under the fair but treacherous seeming of +life. + +The young ladies were now satisfied with the company they had, and the +gentlemen, as can well be understood, wished no further additions. +Therefore they agreed to retire to the library for a game of cards. + +"Hannibal," said Edith, summoning the portentous colored butler who +presided over the front door and dining-room, "if any one calls, say +we are out or engaged." + +That solemn dignitary bowed as low as his stiff white collar would +permit, but soliloquized: + +"I guess I is sumpen too black to tell a white lie, so I'se say dey is +engaged." + +As the ladies swept away, leaning heavily on the arms of their favored +gallants, he added, with a slight grin illumining the gravity of his +face, "It looks mighty like it." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SKIES DARKENING + + + +The game of cards fared indifferently, for they were all too intent on +little games of their own to give close attention. Mr. Van Dam won +when he chose, and gave the game away when he chose, but made Zell +think the skill was mainly hers. + +Still, in common parlance, they had a "good time." From such clever +men the jests and compliments were rather better than the average, and +repartee from the ruby lips that smiled upon them could not seem other +than brilliant. + +Edith soon added to the sources of enjoyment by ordering cake and +wine, for though not the eldest she seemed naturally to take the lead. + +Mr. Goulden drank sparingly. He meant that not a film should come +across his judgment. Mr. Van Dam drank freely, but he was seasoned to +more fiery potations than sherry. Not so poor Gus, who, while he could +never resist the wine, soon felt its influence. But he had sufficient +control never to go beyond the point of tipsiness that fashion allows +in the drawing-room. + +Of course through Zell's unrestrained chatter the recently made plans +soon came out. + +Adroit Mr. Van Dam turned to Zell with an expression of much pleased +surprise, exclaiming: + +"How fortunate I am! I had completed my plans to go abroad some little +time since." + +Zell clapped her hands with delight, but an involuntary shadow +darkened. Edith's face. + +Gus looked nonplussed. He knew that his father and mother with +difficulty kept pace with his home expenses and that a Continental +tour was impossible for him. Mr. Goulden looked a little thoughtful, +as if a new element had entered into the problem. + +"Oh, come," laughed Zell. "Let us all be good, and go on a pilgrimage +together to Paris--I mean Jerusalem." + +"I will worship devoutly with you at either shrine," said Mr. Van Dam. + +"And with equal sincerity, I suppose," said Edith, rather coldly. + +"I sadly fear, Miss Edith, that my sincerity will not be superior to +that of the other devotees," was the keen retort, in blandest tones. + +Edith bit her lip, but said gayly, "Count me out of your pilgrim band. +I want no shrine with relics of the past. I wish no incense rising +about me obscuring the view. I like the present, and wish to see what +is beyond." + +"But suppose you are both shrine and divinity yourself?" said Gus, +with what he meant for a killing look. + +"Do you mean that compliment for me?" asked Edith, all sweetness. + +Between wine and love Gus was inclined to be sentimental, and so in a +low, meaning tone answered: + +"Who more deserving?" + +Edith's eyes twinkled a moment, but with a half sigh she replied: + +"I fear you read my character rightly. A shrine suggests many +offerings, and a divinity many worshippers." + +Zell laughed outright, and said, "In that respect all women would be +shrines and divinities if they could." + +Van Dam and Goulden could not suppress a smile at the unfortunate +issue of Elliot's sentiment, while the latter glanced keenly to see +how much truth was hinted in the badinage. + +"For my part," said Laura, looking fixedly at nothing, "I would rather +have one true devotee than a thousand pilgrims who were _gushing_ at +every shrine they met." + +"Brava!" cried Mr. Goulden. "That was the keenest arrow yet flown;" +for the other two men were notorious flirts. + +"I do not think so. Its point was much too broad," said Zell, with a +meaning look at Mr. Goulden, that brought a faint color into his +imperturbable face, and an angry flush to Laura's. + +A disconcerted manner had shown that even Gus's vanity had not been +impervious to Edith's barb, but he had now recovered himself, and +ventured again: + +"I would have my divinity a patron saint sufficiently human to pity +human weakness, and so come at last to listen to no other prayer than +mine." + +"Surely, Mr. Elliot, you would wish your saint to listen for some +other reason than your weakness only," said Edith. + +"Come, ladies and gentlemen, I move this party breaks up, or some one +will get hurt," said Gus, with a half-vexed laugh. + +"What is the matter?" asked Edith innocently. + +"Yes," echoed Zell, rising, "what is the matter with _you_, Mr. Van +Dam? Are you asleep, that you are so quiet? Tell us about your +divinity." + +"I am an astronomer and fire-worshipper, somewhat dazzled at present +by the nearness and brilliancy of my bright luminary." + +"Nonsense! your sight is failing, and you have mistaken a will-o'-the-wisp for the sun. + +"'Dancing here, dancing there, Catch it if you can and dare,'" +and she flitted away before him. + +He followed with his intent eyes and graceful, serpent-like gliding, +knowing her to be under a spell that would soon bring her fluttering +back. + +After circling round him a few moments she took his arm and he +commenced breathing into her ear the poison of his passion. + +No woman could remain the same after being with Mr. Van Dam. Out of +the evil abundance of his heart he spoke, but the venom of his words +and manner were all the more deadly because so subtle, so minutely and +delicately distributed, that it was like a pestilential atmosphere, in +which truth and purity withered. + +No parent should permit to his daughters the companionship of a +thoroughly bad man, whatever his social standing. His very tone and +glance are unconsciously demoralizing, and, even if he tries, he +cannot prevent the bitter waters overflowing from their bad source, +his heart. + +Mr. Van Dam did not try. He meant to secure Zell, with or without her +father's approval, believing that when the marriage was once +consummated Mr. Allen's consent and money would follow eventually. + +For some little time longer the young ladies and their favored +attendants strolled about the room in quiet tete-a-tete, and then the +gentlemen bowed themselves out. + +The door-bell had rung several times during the evening, but Hannibal, +with the solemnity of a funeral, had quenched each comer by saying +with the decision of the voice of fate: + +"De ladies am engaged, sah," and no Cerberus at the door, or mailed +warder of the middle ages, could have proved such an effectual barrier +against all intruders as this old negro in his white waistcoat and +stiff necktie, backed by the usage of modern society. Indeed, in some +respects he was a greater potentate than old King Canute, for he could +say to the human passions, inclinations, and desires that surged up to +Mr. Allen's front door, "Thus far and no farther." + +But upon this evening there was a caller who looked with cool, +undaunted eyes upon the stiff necktie and solemn visage rising above +it, and to Hannibal's reiterated statement, "Dey _am_ engaged," +replied in a quiet tone of command: + +"Take that card to Miss Edith." + +Even Hannibal's sovereignty broke down before this persistent, +imperturbable visitor, and scratching his head with a perplexed grin +he half soliloquized, half replied: + +"Miss Edith mighty 'ticlar to hab her orders obeyed." + +"I am the best judge in this case," was the decisive response. "You +take the card and I will be responsible." + +Hannibal came to the conclusion that for some occult reason the +gentleman, who was well known to him, had a right to pronounce the +"open sesame" where the portal had been remained closed to all others, +and, being a diplomatist, resolved to know more fully the quarter of +the wind before assuming too much. But his statecraft was sorely +puzzled to know why one of Mr. Allen's under-clerks should suddenly +appear in the role of social caller upon the young ladies, for Mr. +Fox, the gentleman in question, ostensibly had no higher position. His +appearance and manner indicated a mystery. Old Hannibal's wool had not +grown white for nothing, and he was the last man in the world to go +through a mystery as a blundering bumblebee would through a spider's +web. He was for leaving the web all intact till he knew who spun it +and whom it was to catch. If it was Mr. Allen's work or Miss Edith's, +it _must_ stand; if not, he could play bumblebee with a vengeance, and +carry off the gossamer of intrigue with one sweep. + +So, showing Mr. Fox into a small reception room, he made his way to +the library door with a motion that would have reminded you of a +great, stealthy cat, and called in a loud, impressive whisper: + +"Miss Edith!" + +Edith at once rose and went to him, knowing that her prime minister +had some important question of state to present when summoning her in +that tone. + +Screened by the library door, Hannibal commenced in a deprecating way: + +"I told Mr. Fox you'se engaged, but he say I must give you dis card. +He kinder acted as if he own dis niggar and de whole establishment." + +A sudden heavy frown drew Edith's dark eyebrows together and she said +loud enough for Mr. Fox in his ambush to hear: + +"Was there ever such impudence!" and straightway the frown passed to +the listener, intensified, like a flying cloud darkening one spot now +and another a moment later. + +"Return the card, and say I am engaged," she said haughtily. "Stay," +she added thoughtfully. "Perhaps he wished to see papa, or there is +some important business matter which needs immediate attention. If +not, dismiss him," and Edith returned to the library quite as much +puzzled as Hannibal had been. Two or three times recently she had +found Mr. Fox's card on returning from evenings out. Why had he +called? She had only a cool, bowing acquaintance with him, formed by +his coming occasionally to see her father on business, and her father +had not thought it worth while to formally introduce Mr. Fox to any of +his family at such times, but had treated him as a sort of upper +servant. Her certainly was putting on strange airs, as her old grand-vizier had intimated. But in the game of cards, and her other little +game with Grus, she soon forgot his existence. + +Meantime Hannibal, reassured, was regal again, and marched down the +marble hall with something like the feeling and bearing of his great +namesake. If there were a web here, the Allens were not spinning it, +and he owed. Mr. Fox nothing but a slight grudge for his "airs." + +Therefore with the manner of one feeling himself master of the +situation he said: + +"Hab you a message for Mr. Allen?" + +"No," replied Mr. Fox quietly. + +"Den I tell you again Miss Edith _am_ engaged." + +Looking straight into Hannibal's eyes, without a muscle changing in +his impassive face, Mr. Fox said in the steady tone of command: + +"Say to Miss Edith I will call again," and he passed out of the door +as if _he_ were master of the situation. + +Hannibal rolled up his eyes till nothing but the whites were seen, and +muttered: + +"Brass ain't no name for it." + +Mr. Fox's action can soon be explained. Mr. Allen, while accustomed to +operate largely in Wall Street through his brokers, was also the head +of a cloth-importing firm. This in fact had been his regular and +legitimate business, but like so many others he had been drawn into +the vortex of speculation, and after many lucky hits had acquired that +overweening confidence that prepares the way for a fall. He came to +believe that he had only to put his hand to a thing to give it the +needful impulse to success. In his larger and more exciting operations +in Wall Street he had left the cloth business mainly to his junior +partners and dependants, they employing his capital. Mr. Fox was +merely a clerk in this establishment, and not in very high standing +either. He was also another unwholesome product of metropolitan life. +As office boy among the lawyers, as a hanger-on of the criminal +courts, he had scrambled into a certain kind of legal knowledge and +had gained a small pettifogging practice when an opening in Mr. +Allen's business led to his present connection. Mr. Allen felt that in +his varied and extended business he needed a man of Mr. Fox's stamp to +deal with the legal questions that came up, look after the intricacies +of the revenue laws, and manage the immaculate saints of the custom-house. As far as the firm had dirty, disagreeable, perplexing work to +do, Mr. Fox was to do it. Whenever it came in contact with the majesty +of the law and government, Mr. Fox was to represent it. Whenever some +Israelite in whom _was_ guile sought, on varied pretext, to wriggle +out of the whole or part of a bill, the wary Mr. Fox met him on his +own plane and with his own weapons, skirmished with him, and won the +little fight. + +I would not for a moment give the impression that Mr. Allen was in +favor of sharp practice. He merely wished to conduct his business on +the business principles and practice of the day, and it was not his +purpose, and certainly not his policy, to pass beyond the law. But +even the judges disagree as to what the law is, and he was dealing +with many who thrived by evading it; therefore the need of a nimble +Mr. Fox who could burrow and double on his tracks with the best of +them. All went well for years, and the firm was saved many an +annoyance, many a loss, and if this guerilla of the house, as perhaps +we may term him, had been as devoted to Mr. Allen's interests as to +his own, all might have gone well to the end. But these very sharp +tools are apt to cut both ways, and so it turned out in this case. The +astute Mr. Fox determined to serve Mr. Allen faithfully as long as he +could faithfully and pre-eminently serve himself. If he who had +scrambled from the streets to his present place of power could reach a +higher position by stepping on the great rich merchant, such power +would have additional satisfaction. He was as keen-scented after money +as Mr. Allen, only the latter hunted like a lion, and the former like +a fox. He mastered Mr. Allen's business thoroughly in all its details. +Until recently no opportunity had occurred save work which, though +useful, caused him to be half-despised by the others who would not or +could not do it. But of late he had gained a strong vantage point. He +watched with intense interest Mr. Allen's attraction toward, and +entrance upon, a speculation that he knew to be as uncertain of issue +as it was large in proportions, for, if the case ever became critical, +he was conscious of the power of introducing a very important element +into the problem. + +In his care of the custom-house business he had discovered technical +violations of the revenue laws which already involved the loss to the +firm of a million dollars, and, with his peculiar loyalty to himself, +thought this knowledge ought to be worth a great deal. As Mr. Allen +went down into the deep waters of Wall Street, he saw that it might +be. In saving his employer from wreck he might virtually become +captain of the ship. + +After this brief delineation of character, it would strike the reader +as very incongruous to say that Mr. Fox had fallen in love with Edith. +Mr. Fox never stumbled or fell. He could slide down and scramble up to +any extent, and when cornered could take a flying leap like that of a +cat. But he had been greatly impressed by Edith's beauty, and to win +her also would be an additional and piquant feature in the game. He +had absolute confidence in money, much of which he might have gained +from Mr. Allen himself. He knew a million of her father's money was in +his power, and this, in a certain sense, placed him in the position of +a suitor worth a million, and such he knew to be almost omnipotent on +the avenue. If this money could also be the means of causing Mr. +Allen's ruin, or saving him from it, he believed that Edith would be +his as truly as the bonds and certificates of stock that he often +counted and gloated over. Even before Mr. Allen entered on what he +called his great and final operation for the present, Mr. Fox was half +inclined to show his hand and make the most of it, but within the last +few days he had learned that perhaps a greater opportunity was opening +before him. Meantime in the full consciousness of power he had begun +to call on Edith, as we have seen, something as a cat plays around and +watches a caged bird, which it expects to have in its claws before +long. + +The next morning at breakfast Edith mentioned Mr. Fox's recent calls. + +"What is he coming here for?" growled Mr. Allen, looking with a frown +at his daughter. + +"I'm sure I don't know." + +"I hope you don't see him." + +"Certainly not. I was out the first two times, and last night sent +word that I was engaged. But he insisted on his card being given to me +and put on airs generally, so Hannibal seems to think." + +That dignitary gave a confirming and indignant grunt. + +"He said he would call again, didn't he, Hannibal?" + +"Yes'm," blurted Hannibal, "and he looked as if de next time he'd put +us all in his breeches pocket and carry us off." + +"What's Fox up to now?" muttered Mr. Allen, knitting his brows. "I +must look into this." + +But even within a few hours the cloud land of Wall Street had changed +some of its aspects. The serenity of the preceding day was giving +place to indications of a disturbance in the financial atmosphere. He +had to buy more stock to keep the control he was gaining on the +market, and things were not shaping favorably for its rise. He was +already carrying a tremendous load, and even his herculean shoulders +began to feel the burden. In the press and rush of business he forgot +about Fox's social ambition in venturing to call where such men as Van +Dam and Gus Elliot had undisputed rights. + +Those upon whom society lays its hands are orthodox of course. + +The wary Fox was watching the stock market as closely as Mr. Allen, +and chuckled over the aspect of affairs; and he concluded to keep +quietly out of the way a little longer, and await further +developments. + +Things moved rapidly as they usually do in the maelstrom of +speculation. Though Mr. Allen was a trained athlete in business, the +strain upon him grew greater day by day. But true to his promise, and +in accordance with his habit of promptness, he transferred the deed +for the little place in the country to Edith, who gloated over its dry +technicalities as if they were full of romantic hope and suggestion to +her. + +One day when alone with Laura, Mr. Allen asked her suddenly: + +"Has Mr. Goulden made any formal proposal yet?" + +With rising color Laura answered: + +"No." + +"Why not? He seems very slow about it." + +"I hardly know how you expect me to reply to such a question," said +Laura, a little haughtily. + +"Is he as attentive as ever?" + +"Yes, I suppose so, though he has not called quite so often of late." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Allen meditatively, adding after a moment, +"Can't you make him speak out?" + +"You certainly don't mean me to propose to him?" asked Laura, +reddening. + +"No, no, no!" said her father with some irritation, "but any clever +woman can make a man who has gone as far as Mr. Goulden commit himself +whenever she chooses. Your mother would have had the thing settled +long ago, or else would have enjoyed the pleasure of refusing him." + +"I am not mistress of that kind of finesse," said Laura coldly. + +"You are a woman," replied her father coolly, "and don't need any +lessons. It would be well for us both if you would exert your native +power in this case." + +Laura glanced keenly at her father and asked quickly: + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just what I say. A word to the wise is sufficient." + +Having thus indicated to his daughter that phase of Wall Street +tactics and principles that could be developed on the avenue, he took +himself off to the central point of operations. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE STORM THREATENING + + + +Laura had a better motive than that suggested by her father for +wishing to lead Mr. Goulden to commit himself, for as far as she could +love any one beyond herself she loved him, and she also realized fully +that he could continue to her all that her elegant and expensive +tastes craved. Notwithstanding her show of maidenly pride and reserve, +she was ready enough to do as she had been bidden. Mr. Allen guessed +as much. Indeed, as was quite natural, his wife was the type of the +average woman to his mind, only he believed that she was a little +cleverer in these matters than the majority. The manner in which she +had "hooked" him made a deep and lasting impression on his memory. + +But Mr. Goulden was a wary fish. He had no objection to being hooked +if the conditions were all right, and until satisfied as to these he +would play around at a safe distance. As he saw Mr. Allen daily +getting into deeper water, he grew more cautious. His calls were not +quite so frequent. He managed never to be with Laura except in company +with others, and while his manner was very complimentary it was never +exactly lover-like. Therefore, all Laura's feminine diplomacy was in +vain, and that which a woman can say frankly the moment a man speaks, +she could scarcely hint. Moreover, Mr. Goulden was adroit enough to +chill her heart while he flattered her vanity. There was something +about his manner she could not understand, but it was impossible to +take offence at the polished gentleman. + +Her father understood him better. He saw that Mr. Goulden had resolved +to settle the question on financial principles only. + +As the chances diminished of securing him indirectly through Laura as +a prop to his tottering fortunes, he at last came to the conclusion to +try to interest him directly in his speculation, feeling sure if he +could control only a part of Mr. Goulden's large means and credit, he +could carry his operation through successfully. + +Mr. Goulden warily listened to the scheme, warily weighed it, and +concluded within the brief compass of Mr. Allen's explanation to have +nothing to do with it. But his outward manner was all deference and +courteous attention. + +At the end of Mr. Allen's rather eager and rose-colored statements, he +replied in politest and most regretful tones that he "was very sorry +he could not avail himself of so promising an opening, but in fact, he +was 'in deep' himself--carrying all he could stand up under very well, +and was rather in the borrowing than in the lending line at present." + +Keen Mr. Allen saw through all this in a moment, and his face flushed +angrily in spite of his efforts at self-control. Muttering something +to the effect: + +"I thought I would give you a chance to make a good thing," he bade a +rather abrupt "good-morning." + +As the pressure grew heavier upon him he was led to do a thing the +suggestion of which a few weeks previously he would have regarded as +an insult. Mrs. Allen had a snug little property of her own, which had +been secured to her on first mortgages, and in bonds that were quiet +and safe. These her husband held in trust for her, and now pledged +them as collateral on which to borrow money to carry through his +gigantic operation. In respect to part of this transaction, Mrs. Allen +was obliged to sign a paper which might have revealed to her the +danger involved, but she languidly took the pen, yawned, and signed +away the result of her father's long years of toil without reading a +line. + +"There," she said, "I hope you will not bother me about business +again. Now in regard to this party--" and she was about to enter into +an eager discussion of all the complicated details, when her husband, +interrupting, said: + +"Another time, my dear--I am very much pressed by business at +present." + +"Oh, business, nothing but business," whined his wife. "You never have +time to attend to me or your family." + +But Mr. Allen was out of hearing of the querulous tones before the +sentence was finished. + +Of course he never meant that his wife should lose a cent, and to +satisfy his conscience, and impressed by his danger, he resolved that +as soon as he was out of this quaking morass of speculation he would +settle on his wife and each daughter enough to secure them in wealth +through life, and arrange it in such a way that no one could touch the +principal. + +The large sum that he now secured eased up matters and helped him +greatly, and affairs began to wear a brightening aspect. He felt sure +that the stock he had invested in was destined to rise in time, and +indeed it already gave evidences of buoyancy. He noticed with an +inward chuckle that Mr. Goulden began to call a little oftener. He was +the best financial barometer in Wall Street. + +But the case would require the most adroit and delicate management for +weeks still, and this Mr. Allen could have given. Success also +depended on a favorable state of the money market, and a good degree +of stability and quietness throughout the financial world. Political +changes in Europe, a war in Asia, heavy failures in Liverpool, London, +or Paris, might easily spoil all. Reducing Mr. Allen's vast +complicated operation to its final analysis, he had simply bet several +millions--all he had--that nothing would happen throughout the world +that could interfere with a scheme so problematical that the chances +could scarcely be called even. + +But gambling is occasionally successful, and it began to look as if +Mr. Allen would win his bet; and so he might had nothing happened. The +world was quiet enough, remarkably quiet, considering the +superabundance of explosive elements everywhere. + +The financial centres seethed on as usual, like a witch's caldron, but +there were no infernal ebullitions in the form of "Black Fridays." The +storm that threatened to wreck Mr. Allen was no wide, sweeping +tempest, but rather one of those little local whirlwinds that +sometimes in the west destroy a farm or township. + +For the last few weeks Mr. Fox had quietly watched the game, matured +his plans, and secured his proof in the best legal form. He now +concluded it was time to act, as he believed Mr. Allen to be in his +power. So one morning he coolly walked into that gentleman's office, +closed the door, and took a seat. Mr. Allen looked up with an +expression of surprise and annoyance on his face. He instinctively +disliked Mr. Fox, as a lion might be irritated by a cat, and the +instinctive enmity was all the stronger because of a certain family +likeness. But Mr. Allen's astuteness had nothing mean or cringing in +it, while Mr. Fox heretofore had been a sort of Uriah Heep to him. +Therefore his surprise and annoyance at his new role of cool +confidence. + +"Well, sir," said he, rather impatiently, returning to his writing, as +a broad hint that communications must be brief if made at all. + +"Mr. Allen," said Mr. Fox, in that clear-cut, decisive tone, that +betokens resolute purpose, and a little anger also "I must request you +to give me your undivided attention for a little time, and surely what +I am about to say is important enough to make it worth the while." + +Though Mr. Allen flushed angrily, he knew that his clerk would not +employ such a tone and manner without reason, so he raised his head +and looked steadily at his unwelcome visitor and again said briefly: + +"Well, sir?" + +"I wish, in the first place," said Mr. Fox, thinking to begin with the +least important exaction, and gradually reach, a climax in his +extortion, "I wish permission to pay my addresses to your daughter +Miss Edith." + +Knowing nothing of a father's pride and affection, he had unwittingly +brought in the climax first. + +The angry flush deepened on Mr. Allen's face, but he still managed to +control himself, and to remember that the father of three pretty +daughters must expect some scenes like these, and that the only thing +to do was to get rid of the objectionable suitors as civilly as +possible. He was also too much of an American to put on any of the +high-stepping airs of the European aristocracy. Here it is simply one +sovereign proposing for the daughter of another, and generally the +young people practically arrange it all before asking any consent in +the case. After all, Mr. Fox had only paid his daughter the highest +compliment in his power, and if any other of his clerks had made a +similar request he would probably have given as kind and delicate a +refusal as possible. It was because he disliked Mr. Fox, and +instinctively gauged his character, that he said with a short, dry +laugh: + +"Come, Mr. Fox, you are forgetting yourself. You have been a useful +employe" in my store. If you feel that you should have more salary, +name what will satisfy you, and I will consult my partners, and try +and arrange it."--"There," thought he, "if he can't take that hint as +to his place, I shall have to give him a kick." But both surprise and +anger began to get the better of him when Mr. Fox replied: + +"I must really beg your closer attention; I said nothing of increased +salary. You will soon see that is no object with me now. I asked your +permission to pay my addresses to your daughter." + +"I decline to give it," said Mr. Allen, harshly, "and if I hear any +more of this nonsense I will discharge you from my employ." + +"Why?" was the quiet response, yet spoken with the intensity of +passion. + +"Because I never would permit my daughter to marry a man in your +circumstances, and, if you will have it, you are not the style of a +man I would wish to take into my family." + +"If a man who was worth a million asked for your daughter's hand would +you answer him in this manner?" + +"Perhaps not," said Mr. Allen, with another of his short, dry laughs, +which expressed little save irritation, "but you have my answer as +respects yourself." + +"I am not so sure of that," was the bold retort. "I am practically +worth a million--indeed several millions to you, as you are now +situated. You have talked long enough in the dark, Mr. Allen. For some +time back there have been in your importations violations of the +revenue laws. I have only to give the facts in my possession to the +proper authorities and the government would legally claim from you a +million of dollars, of which I should get half. So you see that I am +positively worth five hundred thousand, and to you I am worth a +million with respect to this item alone." + +Mr. Allen sprang excitedly to his feet. Mr. Fox coolly got up and +edged toward the door, which he had purposely left unlatched. + +"Moreover," continued Mr. Fox, in his hard metallic voice, "in view of +your other operations in Wall Street, which I know all about, the loss +of a million would involve the loss of all you have." + +Mr. Fox now had his hand on the door-knob, and Mr. Allen was glaring +at him as if purposing to rush upon him and rend him to pieces. + +Standing in the passageway, Mr. Fox concluded, in a low, meaning tone: + +"You had better make terms with me within twenty-four hours." + +And the door closed sharply, reminding one of the shutting of a steel +trap. + +Mr. Allen sank suddenly back in his chair and stared at the closed +door, looking as if he were a prisoner and all escape cut off. + +He seemed to be in a lethargy or under a partial paralysis; he slowly +and weakly rubbed his head with his hand, as if vaguely conscious that +the trouble was there. + +Gradually the stupor began to pass off, his blood to circulate, and +his mind to realize the situation. + +Rising feebly, as if a sudden age had fallen, on him, he went to the +door and gave orders that he must not be disturbed, and then sat down +to think. Half an hour later he sent for his lawyer, stated the case +to him, enjoined secrecy, and asked him to see Fox, hoping that it +might be a case of mere blackmailing bravado. Keen as Mr. Allen's +lawyer was, he had more than his match in the astute Mr. Fox. Moreover +the latter had everything in his favor. There had been a slight +infringement of the revenue laws, and though involving but small loss +to the government, the consequences were the same. The invoice would +be confiscated as soon as the facts were known. Mr. Fox had secured +ample proof of this. + +Mr. Allen might be able to prove that there was no intention to +violate the law, as indeed there had not been. In fact, he had left +those matters to his subordinates, and they had been a little +careless, averaging matters, contenting themselves with complying with +the general intent of the law, rather than, with painstaking care, +conforming to its letter. Bat the law is very matter-of-fact, and can +be excessively literal when money is to be made by those who live by +enforcing or evading it, as may suit them. Mr. Fox could carry his +case, if he pressed it, and secure his share of the plunder. On +account of a very slight loss, Mr. Allen might be compelled to lose a +million. + +Before the day's decline the lawyer had asked Mr. Fox to take no +further steps, stating vaguely that Mr. Allen would look into the +matter, and would not be unreasonable. + +A sardonic grin gave a momentary lurid hue to Mr. Fox's sallow face. +Knowing the game to be in his own hands, he could quietly bide his +time; so, assuming a tone of much moderation and dignity, he replied, +he had no wish to be hard, and could be reasonable also. "But," added +he, in a meaning tone, "there must be no double work in this matter. +Mr. Allen must see what I am worth to him--nothing could be plainer. +His best policy now is to act promptly and liberally toward me, for I +pledge you my word that if I see any disposition to evade my +requirements I will blow out the bottom of everything," and a snaky +glitter in his small black eyes showed how remorselessly he could +scuttle the ship bearing Mr. Allen's fortunes. + +A speedy investigation showed Mr. Fox's fatal power, and Mr. Allen's +partners were for paying him off, but when they found that he exacted +an interest in the business that quite threw them into the background, +they were indignant and inclined to fight it out. Mr. Allen could not +tell them that he was in no condition to fight. If his financial +status had been the same as some weeks previously, he would rather +have lost the million than have listened one moment to Mr. Fox's +repulsive conditions, but now to risk litigation and commercial +reputation on one hand, and total ruin on the other, was an abyss from +which he shrank back appalled. + +His only resource was to temporize, both with his partners and Mr. +Fox, and so gain time, hoping that the Wall Street scheme, that had +caused so much evil, might also cure it. Of course he could not tell +his partners how he was situated. The slightest breath of suspicion +might cause the evenly balanced scales in which hung all chances to +hopelessly decline. The speculation now promised well. + +If he could only keep things quiet a little longer-- + +Edith must help him. Calling her into the library after dinner, he +asked: + +"Has Mr. Fox called lately?" + +"No, sir, not for some little time." + +"Will you oblige me by seeing him and being civil if he calls again?" +"Why, papa, I thought you did not wish me to see him." + +"Circumstances have altered since then. Is he very disagreeable to +you?" + +"Well, papa, I have scarcely thought of him, but to tell you the truth +when he has been here on business I have involuntarily thought of a +mousing cat, or the animal he is named after on the scent of a hen-roost. But of course I can be civil or even polite to him if you wish +it." + +A spasm of pain crossed her father's face and he put his hand hastily +to his head, a frequent act of late. He rose and took a few turns up +and down the room, muttering: + +"Curse it all, I must tell her. Half knowledge is always dangerous, +and is sure to lead to blunders, and there must be no blunders now." + +Stopping abruptly before his daughter, he said, "He has proposed for +your hand." + +An expression of disgust flitted across Edith's face, and she replied +quickly: + +"We both have surely but one answer to such a proposition from +_him_." + +"Edith, you seem to have more sense in regard to business and such +matters than most young ladies. I must now test you, and it is for you +to show whether you are a woman or a shallow-brained girl. I am sorry +to tell you these things. They are not suited to your age or sex, but +there is no help for it," and he explained how he was situated. + +Edith listened with paling cheek, dilating eyes, and parting lips, but +still with rising courage and a growing purpose to help her father. + +"I do not wish you to marry this villain," he continued. "Heaven +forbid!" (Not that Mr. Allen referred this or any other matter to +Heaven; it was only a strong way of expressing his own disapproval.) +"But we must manage to temporize and keep this man at bay till I can +extricate myself from my difficulties. As soon as I stand on firm +ground I will defy him." + +To Edith, with her standard of morality, the course indicated by her +father seemed eminently filial and praiseworthy. The thought of +marrying Mr. Fox made her flesh creep, but a brief flirtation was +another affair. She had flirted not a little in her day for the mere +amusement of the thing, and with the motives her father had presented +she could do it in this case as if it were an act of devotion. Of the +pure and lofty morality of the Bible she had as little idea as a +Persian houri, and rugged Roman virtue could not develop in the social +atmosphere in which the Allens lived. It was with a clear conscience +that she resolved to beguile Mr. Fox, and signified as much to her +father. + +"Play him off," said this model father, "as Mr. Goulden does Laura. +Curse him!--how I would like to slam the front door in his face. But +my time may come yet," he added with set teeth. + +That morning Mr. Allen sent for Mr. Fox, as he dared brave him no +longer without some definite show of yielding, in order to keep back +his fatal disclosures. With a dignity and formality scarcely in +keeping with his fear and the import of his words, he said: + +"I have considered your statements, sir, and admit their weight. As I +informed you through my lawyer, I wish to be reasonable and hope you +intend to be the same, for these are very grave matters. In regard to +my daughter, you have my permission to call upon her as do her other +gentleman friends, and she will receive you. In this land, that is all +the vantage-ground a _gentleman_ asks, as indeed it is all that can be +granted. I am not the King of Dahomey or the Shah of Persia, and able +to give my daughters where interest may dictate. A lady's inclination +must be consulted. But I give you the permission you ask; you may pay +your addresses to my daughter. You could scarcely ask a father to say +more." + +"It matters little to me what you or others say, but much what they +do. My action shall be based upon yours and Miss Edith's. I have +learned in your employ the value of promptness in all business +matters. I hope you understand me." + +"I do, sir, but there can be no indecent haste in these matters. In +gaining the important position--in assuming the relations you desire--there should be some show of dignity, otherwise society would be +disgusted, and you would lose the respect which should follow such +vast acquirements." + +"Where I can secure the whole cloth, I shall not worry about the +selvage of etiquette and passing opinion," was Mr. Fox's cynical +reply. + +Mr. Allen could not prevent an expression of intense disgust from +coming out upon his face, and he replied with some heat: + +"Well, sir, something is due to my own position, and I cannot treat my +daughter like a bale of cloth, as you suggest in your figurative +speech. However," he added, warily, "I will take the necessary steps +as soon as possible, and will trespass upon your time no longer." + +As Mr. Fox glided out of the office with his sardonic smile, Mr. Allen +felt for the moment that he would rather become bankrupt than make +terms with him. + +Meanwhile the month of February was rapidly passing, though each day +was an age of anxiety and suspense to Mr. Allen. The tension was too +much for him, and he evidently aged and failed under it. He drank more +than he ate, and his temper was very variable. From his wife he only +received chidings and complaints that in his horrid "mania for +business" he was neglecting her and his family in general. She could +never get him to sit down and talk sensibly of the birthday and debut +party that was now so near. He would always say, testily, "Manage it +to suit yourselves." + +Laura and Zell were too much wrapped up in their own affairs to give +much thought to anything else. But Edith, of late, understood her +father and felt deeply for him. One evening finding him sitting +dejectedly alone in the library after dinner, she said: + +"Why go on with this party, papa? I am sure I am ready to give it up +if it will be any relief to you." + +The heart of this strong, confident man of the world was sore and +lonely. For perhaps the first time he felt the need of support and +sympathy. He drew his beautiful daughter, whom thus far he had +scarcely more than admired, down upon his lap and buried his face upon +her shoulder. A breath of divine impulse swept aside for a moment the +stifling curtains of his sordid life, and he caught a glimpse of the +large happy realm of love. + +"And would you really give up anything for the sake of your old +father?" he asked in a low tone. + +"Everything," cried Edith, much moved by the unusual display of +affection and feeling on the part of her father. + +"The others would not," said he bitterly. + +"Indeed, papa, I think they would if they only knew. We would all do +anything to see you your old jovial self again. Give up this wretched +struggle; tell Mr. Fox to do his worst. I am not afraid of being poor; +I am sure we could work up again." + +"You know nothing about poverty," sighed her father. "When you are +down, the world that bowed at your feet will run over and trample on +you. I have seen it so often, but never thought of danger to me and +mine." + +"But this party," said the practical Edith, "why not give this up? It +will cost a great deal." + +"By no means give it up," said her father. "It may help me very much. +My credit is everything now. The appearance of wealth which such, a +display insures will do much to secure the wealth. I am watched day +and night, and must show no sign of weakness. Go on with the party and +make it as brilliant as possible. If I fail, two or three thousand +will make no difference, and it may help me to succeed. Whatever +strengthens my credit for the next few days is everything to me. My +stock is rising, only it is too slow. Things look better--if I could +only gain time. But I am very uneasy--my head troubles me," and he put +his hand to his head, and Edith remembered how often, she had seen him +do that of late. + +"By the way," said he, abruptly, "tell me how you get on with Mr. +Fox." + +"Oh, never mind about that now; do rest a little, mind and body." + +"No, tell me," said her father sharply, showing how little control he +had over himself. + +"Well, I think I have beaten him so far. He is very demonstrative, and +acts as if I belonged to him. Did I not manage to always meet him in +company with others, he would come at once to an open declaration. As +it is, I cannot prevent it much longer. He is coming this evening, and +I fear he will press matters. He seems to think that the asking is a +mere form, and that our extremity will leave no choice." + +"You must avoid him a little longer. Come, we will go to the theatre, +and then you might be sick for a few days." + +In a few minutes they were off, and were scarcely well away when Mr. +Fox, dressed in more style than he could carry gracefully, appeared. + +"Miss Edith am out," said Hannibal loftily. + +"I half believe you lie," muttered Mr. Fox, looking very black. + +"Sarch de house, sah. It am a berry gentlemanly proceeding." + +"Where has she gone? and whom did she go with?" + +"I hab no orders to say," said Hannibal, looking fixedly at the +ceiling of the vestibule. + +The knightly suitor turned on his heel, muttering, "They are playing +me false." + +'Twas a pity, and he so true. + +The next day Edith was sick and Mr. Allen's stock was rising. Hannibal +again sent Mr. Fox baffled away, but with a dangerous gleam in his +eyes. + +On the following morning Mr. Allen found a note on his desk. His face +grew livid as he read it, and he often put his hand to his head. He +sat down and wrote to this effect, however: + +"I am arranging the partnership matter as rapidly as possible. In +regard to my daughter you will ruin all if you show no more +discretion. I cannot compel her to marry you. You may make it +impossible to influence her in your favor. You have been well +received. What more can you ask? A matter of this kind must be +arranged delicately." + +Mr. Fox pondered over this with a peculiarly foxy expression. "It +sounds plausible. If I only thought he was true," soliloquized this +embodiment of truth. + +Mr. Allen's stock was higher, and Mr. Fox watched the rise grimly, but +he saw Edith, who was all smiles and graciousness, and gave him a +verbal invitation to her birthday-party which was to take place early +in the following week. + +The fellow had not a little vanity, and was insnared, his suspicions +quieted for the time. Valuing money himself supremely, it seemed most +rational that father and daughter should regard him as the most +eligible young man in the city. + +Edith's friends, and Gus in particular, were rather astonished at the +new-comer. Laura was frigid and remonstrant, Zell and Mr. Van Dam +satirical, but Edith wilfully tossed her head and said he was clever +and well off, and she liked him well enough to talk to him a little. +Society had made her a good actress. Meanwhile on the Tuesday +following (and this was Friday) the long expected party would take +place. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WRECK + + + +On Saturday Mr. Allen's stock was rising, and he ventured to sell a +little in a quiet way. If he "unloaded" rapidly and openly, he would +break down the market. + +Mr. Fox watched events uneasily. Mr. Goulden grew genial and more +pronounced in his attentions. Gus, on Saturday, showed almost as much +solicitude for a decisively favorable answer as did Mr. Fox, if the +language of his eyes meant anything; but Edith played him and Mr. Fox +off against each other so adroitly that they were learning to hate +each other as cordially as they agreed in admiring her. Though she +inclined in her favor to Mr. Fox, he was suspicious from nature, and +annoyed at never being able to see her alone. + +As before, they were at cards together in the library, and Edith went +for a moment into the parlor to get something. With the excuse of +obtaining it for her, Mr. Fox followed, and the moment they were alone +he seized her hand and pressed a kiss upon it. An angry flush came +into her face, but by a great effort she so far controlled herself as +to put her finger to her lips and point to the library, as if her +chief anxiety was that the attention of its occupants should not be +excited. Mr. Fox was delighted, though the angry flush was a little +puzzling. But if Edith permitted that she would permit more, and if +her only shrinking was lest others should see and know at present, +that could soon be overcome. These thoughts passed through his mind +while the incensed girl hastily obtained what she wished. But she, +feeling that her cheeks were too hot to return immediately to the +critical eyes in the library, passed out through the front parlor, +that she might have time to be herself again when she appeared. On +what little links destiny sometimes hangs! + +That which changed all her future and that of others--that involving +life and death--occurred in the half moment occupied in her passing +out of the front parlor. The consequences she would feel most keenly, +terribly indeed at times, though she might never guess the cause. Her +act was a simple, natural one under the circumstances, and yet it told +Mr. Fox, in his cat-like watchfulness, that with all his cunning he +was being made a fool of. The moment Edith had passed around the +sliding door and thought herself unobserved, an expression of intense +disgust came out upon her expressive face, and with her lace +handkerchief she rubbed the hand he had kissed, as if removing the +slime of a reptile; and the large mirror at the further end of the +room had faithfully reflected the suggestive little pantomime. He saw +and understood all in a flash. + +No words could have so plainly told her feeling toward him, and he was +one of those reptiles that could sting remorselessly in revenge. The +nature of the imposition practiced upon him, and the fact that it was +partially successful and might have been wholly so, cut him in the +sorest spot. He who thought himself able to cope with the shrewdest +and most artful had been overreached by a girl, and he saw at that +moment that her purpose to beguile him long enough for Mr. Allen to +extricate himself from his difficulties might have been successful. He +had had before an uneasy consciousness that he ought to act +decisively, and now he knew it. + +"I'm a fool--a cursed fool," he muttered, speaking the truth for once, +"but it's not too late yet." + +His resolution was taken instantly, but when Edith appeared after a +moment in the library, smiling and affable again, lie seemed in good +spirits also, but there was a steely, serpent-like glitter in his +eyes, that made him more repulsive than ever. But he stayed as late as +the others, knowing that it might be his last evening at the Allens'. +For Edith had said as part of her plan for avoiding Mr. Fox: + +"We shall be too busy to see any company till Tuesday evening, and +then we hope to see you all." + +Her sisters had assented, expecting that it would be the case. + +With a refinement of malice, Mr. Fox sought to give general annoyance, +by a polite insolence toward the others, which they with difficulty +ignored, and a lover-like gallantry toward Edith, which was like +nettles to Gus, and nauseating to her; but she did not dare resent it. +He could at least torment her a little longer. + +At last all were gone, and her father coming in from his club said, +drawing her aside: + +"All right yet?" + +"Yes, but I hope the ordeal will be over soon, or I shall die with +disgust, or, like some I have read of in fairy stories, be killed by a +poisonous breath." + +"Keep it up a little longer, that is a good, brave girl. I think that +by another week we shall be able to defy him," said her father in +cheerful tones. "If my stock rises as much in the next few days as of +late, I shall soon be on _terra firma_." + +If he had known that the mine beneath his feet was loaded, and the +fuse fired, his full face would have become as pale as it was florid +with wine and the dissipation of the evening. + +Monday morning came--all seemed quiet. His stock was rising so rapidly +that he determined to hold on a little longer. + +Goulden met and congratulated him, saying that he had bought a little +himself, and would take more if Mr. Allen would sell, as now he was +easier in funds than when spoken to before on the subject. + +Mr. Allen replied rather coldly that he would not sell any stock that +day. + +Mr. Fox kept out of the way, and quietly attended to his routine as +usual, but there was a sardonic smile on his face, as if he were +gloating over some secret evil. + +Tuesday, the long-expected day that the Allens believed would make one +of the most brilliant epochs in their history, dawned in appropriate +brightness. The sun dissipated the few opposing clouds and declined in +undimmed splendor, and Edith, who alone had fears and forebodings, +took the day as an omen that the storm had passed, and that better +days than ever were coming. + +Invitations by the hundred, with imposing monogram and coat-of-arms, +had gone out, and acceptances had flowed back in full current. All +that lavish expenditure could secure in one of the most luxurious +social centres of the world had been obtained without stint to make +the entertainment perfect. + +But one knew that it might become like Belshazzar's feast. + +The avalanche often hangs over the Alpine passes so that a loud word +will bring it whirling down upon the hapless traveller. The avalanche +of ruin, impending over Mr. Allen, was so delicately poised that a +whisper could precipitate its crushing weight, and that whisper had +been spoken. + +All the morning of Tuesday his stock was rising, and he resolved that +on the morning after the party he would commence selling rapidly, and, +so far from being bankrupt, he would realize much of the profit that +he had expected. + +But a rumor was floating through the afternoon papers that a well-known merchant, eminent in financial and social circles, had been +detected in violating the revenue laws, and that the losses which such +violation would involve to him would be immense. The stock market, +more sensitive than a belle's vanity, paused to see what it meant. One +of Mr. Allen's partners of the cloth house brought a paper to him. He +grew pale as he read it, put his hand suddenly to his head, but after +a moment seemingly found his voice and said: + +"Could Fox have been so dastardly?" + +His partner shrugged his shoulder as much as to say, "Fox could do +anything in that line." + +Mr. Allen sent for Fox, but he could not be found. In the meantime the +stock market closed and the rise of his stock was evidently checked +for the moment. + +By reason of the party, Mr. Allen had to return uptown, but he +arranged with his partner to remain and if anything new developed to +send word by special messenger. + +By eight o'clock the Allen mansion on Fifth Avenue was all aglow with +light. By nine, carriages began to roll up to the awning that +stretched from the heavy arched doorway across the sidewalk, and +ladies that would soon glide through the spacious rooms in elegant +drapery, now seemed misshapen bundles in their wrapping, and gathered +up dresses as they hurried out of the publicity of the street. The +dressing-rooms where the spheroidal bundles were undergoing +metamorphose became buzzing centres of life. + +Before the long pier glasses there was a marshalling of every charm, +real or borrowed (more correctly bought), in view of the hoped-for +conquests of the evening, and it would seem that not a few went on the +military maxim that success is often secured by putting on as bold a +front, and making as great and startling display, as possible. But as +fragrant, modest flowers usually bloom in the garden with gaudy, +scentless ones, so those inclined to be _bizarre_ made an excellent +foil for the refined and elegant, and thus had their uses. There is +little in the world that is not of value, looking at it from some +point of view. + +In another apartment the opposing forces, if we may so style them, +were almost as eagerly investing themselves in--shall we say charms +also? or rather with the attributes of manhood? At any rate the +glasses seem quite as anxiously consulted in that room as in the +other. One might almost imagine them the magic mirrors of prophecy in +which anxious eyes caught a glimpse of coming fate. There were certain +youthful belles and beaux who turned away with open complacent smiles, +vanity whispering plainly to them of noble achievement in the parlors +below. There were others, perhaps not young, who turned away with +faces composed in the rigid and habitual lines of pride. They were +past learning anything from the mirror, or from any other source that +might reflect disparagingly upon them. Prejudice in their own favor +surrounded their minds as with a Chinese wall. Conceit had become a +disease with them, and those faculties that might have let in +wholesome, though unwelcome, truth were paralyzed. + +But the majority turned away not quite satisfied--with an inward +foreboding that all was not as well as it might be--that critical eyes +would see ground for criticism. Especially was this true of those whom +Time's interfering fingers had pulled somewhat awry, even beyond the +remedy of art, and of those whose bank account, jewels, silks, etc., +were not quite up to the standard of some others who might jostle them +in the crush. Realize, my reader, the anguish of a lady compelled to +stand by another lady wearing larger diamonds than her own, or more +point lace, or a longer train. What _will_ the world think, as under +the chandelier this painful contrast comes out? Such moments of deep +humiliation cause sleepless nights, and the next day result in bills +that become as crushing as criminal indictments to poor overworked +men. Under the impulse of such trying scenes as these, many a matron +has gone forth on Broadway with firm lips and eyes in which glowed +inexorable purpose, and placed the gems that would be mill-stones +about her husband's neck on the fat arms or fingers that might have +helped him forward. There are many phases of heroism, but if you +want your breath quite taken away, go to Tiffany's, and see some +large-souled woman, who will not even count the cost or realize the +dire consequences--see her, like some martyr of the past, who would +show to the world the object of his faith though the heavens fell, +march to the counter, select the costliest, and say in tones of +majesty: + +"Send the bill to my husband!" + +Oh, acme of faith! The martyrs knew that the Almighty was equal to +the occasion. She knows that her husband is not; yet she trusts, or, +what is the same thing here, gets trusted. Men allied to such women +are soon lifted up to--attics. It is still true that great deeds bring +humanity nearer heaven! + +Therefore, my reader, deem it not trivial that I have paused so long +over the Allens' party. It is philosophical to trace great events and +phenomenal human action to their hidden causes. + +There were also diffident men and maidens who descended into the +social arena of Mrs. Allen's parlors, as awkward swimmers venture into +deep water, but this is fleeting experience in fashionable life. And +we sincerely hope that some believed that the old divine paradox, "It +is more blessed to give than to receive," is as true in the drawing-room as when the contribution-box goes round, and proposed to enjoy +themselves by contributing to the enjoyment of others, and to see +nothing that would tempt to heroic conduct at Tiffany's the next day. + +When the last finishing touches had been given, and maids and +hairdressers stood around in rapt politic breathlessness, and were +beginning to pass into that stage in which they might be regarded as +exclamation points, Mrs. Allen and her daughters swept away to take +their places at the head of the parlors in order to receive. They +liked the prelude of applause upstairs well enough, but then it was +only like the tuning of the instruments before the orchestra fairly +opens. + +Mrs. Allen, as she majestically took her position, evidently belonged +to that class whom pride petrifies. Her self-complacency on such an +occasion was habitual, her coolness and repose those of a veteran. A +nervous creature upstairs with her family, excitement made her, under +the eye of society, so steady and self-controlled that she was like +one of the old French marshals who could plan a campaign under the +hottest fire. Her blue eyes grew quite brilliant and seemed to take in +everything. Some natural color shone where the cosmetics permitted, +and her form seemed to dilate with something more than the mysteries +of French modistes. Her manner and expression said: + +"I am Mrs. Allen. We are of an old New York family. We are very, very +rich. This entertainment is immensely expensive and perfect in kind. I +defy criticism. I expect applause." + +Of course this was all veiled by society's completest polish; but +still by a close observer it could be seen, just as a skilful sculptor +drapes a form, but leaves its outlines perfect. + +Laura was the echo of her mother, modified by the element of youth. + +Zell fairly blazed. What with sparkling jewelry, flaming cheeks, +flashing eyes, and words thrown off like scintillating sparks, she +suggested an exquisite July firework, burning longer than usual and +surprising every one. Admiration followed her like a torrent, and her +vanity dilated without measure as attention and compliments were +almost forced upon her, and yet it was frank, good-natured vanity, as +naturally to be expected in her case as a throng of gaudy poppies +where a handful of seed had been dropped. Zell's nature was a soil +where good or bad seed would grow vigorously. + +Mr. Van Dam was never far off, and watched her with intent, gloating +eyes, saying in self-congratulation: + +"What a delicious morsel she will make!" and adding his mite to the +general chorus of flattery by mild assertions like the following: + +"Do you know that there is not a lady present that for a moment can +compare with you?" + +"How delightfully frank he is!" thought Zell of her distinguished +admirer, who was as open as a quicksand that can swallow up anything +and leave not a trace on its surface. Edith was quite as beautiful as +Zell, but far less brilliant and pronounced. Though quiet and +graceful, she was not stately like Laura. Her full dark eyes were +lustrous rather than sparkling, and they dwelt shrewdly and +comprehendingly on all that was passing, and conveyed their +intelligence to a brain that was judging quite accurately of men and +things at a time when so many people "lose their heads." + +Zell was intoxicated by the incense she received. Laura offered +herself so much that she was enshrouded in a thick cloud of +complacency all the time. Edith was told by the eyes and manner of +those around her that she was beautiful and highly favored by wealth +and position generally. But she knew this, as a matter of fact, +before, and did not mean to make a fool of herself on account of it. +These points thoroughly settled and quietly realized, she was in a +condition to go out of herself and enjoy all that was going on. + +She was specially elated at this time also, as she had gathered from +her father's words that his danger was nearly over and that before the +week was out they could defy Mr. Fox, look forward to Europe and +bright voyaging generally. + +Mr. Allen did not tell her his terrible fear that Mr. Fox had been a +little too prompt, and that crushing disaster might still be +impending. He had said to himself, "Let her and all of them make the +most of this evening. It may be the last of the kind that they will +enjoy." + +The spacious parlors filled rapidly. If lavish expenditure and a large +brilliant attendance could insure their enjoyment, it was not wanting. +Flowers in fanciful baskets on the tables and in great banks on the +mantels and in the fireplaces deservedly attracted much attention and +praise, though the sum expended on their transient beauty was +appalling. Their delicious fragrance mingling with perfumes of +artificial origin suggested a like intermingling of the more delicate, +subtile, but genuine manifestations of character, and the graces of +mind and manner borrowed for the occasion. + +The scene was very brilliant. There were marvellous toilets--dresses +not beginning as promptly as they should, perhaps, but seemingly +seeking to make up for this deficiency by elegance and costliness, +having once commenced. There was no economy in the train, if there had +been in the waist. Therefore gleaming shoulders, glittering diamonds, +the soft radiance of pearls, the sheen of gold, and lustrous eyes +aglow with excitement, and later in the evening, with wine, gave a +general phosphorescent effect to the parlors that Mrs. Allen +recognized, from long experience, as the sparkling crown of success. +So much elegance on the part of the ladies present would make the +party the gem of the season, and the gentlemen in dark dress made a +good black enamel setting. + +There was a confused rustle of silks and a hum of voices, and now and +then a silvery laugh would ring out above these like the trill of a +bird in a breezy grove. Later, light airy music floated through the +rooms, followed by the rhythmic cadence of feet. A thinly clad +shivering little match-girl stopped on her weary tramp to her cellar +and caught glimpses of the scene through the oft-opening door and +between the curtains of the windows. It seemed to her that those +glancing forms were in heaven. Alas for this earthly paradise! + +Mr. Fox, with characteristic malice, had managed that Mr. Allen and +perhaps the family should have, as his contribution to the +entertainment, the sickening dread which the news in the afternoon +papers would occasion. As the evening advanced he determined to accept +the invitation and watch the effect. He avoided Mr. Allen, and soon +gathered that Edith and the rest knew nothing of the impending blow. +Edith smiled graciously on him; she felt that, like the sun, she could +shine on all that night. But as, in his insolence, his attentions grew +marked, she soon shook him off by permitting Gus Elliot to claim her +for a waltz. + +Mr. Fox glided around, Mephistopheles-like, gloating on the sinister +changes that he would soon occasion. He was to succeed even better +than he dreamed. + +The evening went forward with music and dancing, discussing, +disparaging, flirting, and skirmishing, culminating in numbers and +brilliancy as some gorgeous flower might expand; and seemingly it +would have ended by the gay company's rustling departure like the +flower, as the varied colored petals drop away from the stem, had not +an event occurred which was like a rude hand plucking the flower in +its fullest bloom and tearing the petals away in mass. + +The magnificent supper had just been demolished. Champagne had foamed +without stint, cause and symbol of the increasing but transient +excitement of the occasion. More potent wines and liquors, suggestive +of the stronger and deeper passions that were swaying the mingled +throng, had done their work, and all, save the utterly _blase_, +had secured that noble elevation which it is the province of these +grand social combinations to create. Even Mr. Allen regained his +habitual confidence and elevation as his waist-coat expanded under, or +rather over, those means of cheer and consolation which he had so long +regarded as the best panacea for earthly ills. The oppressive sense of +danger gave place to a consciousness of the warm, rosy present. Mr. +Fox and the custom-house seemed but the ugly phantoms of a past dream. +Was he not the rich Mr. Allen, the owner of this magnificent mansion, +the cornerstone of this superb entertainment? If by reason of wine he +saw a little double, he only saw double homage on every side. He heard +in men's tones, and saw in woman's glances, that any one who could pay +for his surroundings that night was no ordinary person. His wife +looked majestic as she swept through the parlors on the arm of one of +his most distinguished fellow-citizens. Through the library door he +could see Mr. Goulden leaning toward Laura and saying something that +made even her pale face quite peony-like. Edith, exquisite as a moss-rose, was about to lead off in the German in the large front parlor. +Zell was near him, the sparkling centre of a breezy, merry little +throng that had gathered round her. It seemed that all that he loved +and valued most was grouped around him in the guise most attractive to +his worldly eyes. In this moment of unnatural elation hope whispered, +"To-morrow you can sell your stock, and, instead of failing, increase +your vast fortune, and then away to new scenes, new pleasures, free +from the burden of care and fear." It was at that moment of false +confidence and pride, when in suggestive words descriptive of the +ancient tragedy of Belshazzar he "had drank wine and praised the gods +of gold and of silver" which he had so long worshipped, and which had +secured to him all that so dilated his soul with exultation, that he +saw the handwriting, not of shadowy fingers "upon the wall," but of +his partner, sent, as agreed, by a special messenger. With revulsion +and chill of fear he tore open the envelope and read: + +"Pox has done his worst. We are out for a million--All will be in the +morning papers." + +Even his florid, wine-inflamed cheeks grew pale, and he raised his +hand tremblingly to his head, and slowly lifted his eyes like a man +who dreads seeing something, but is impelled to look. The first object +they rested on was the sardonic, mocking face of Mr. Fox, who, ever on +the alert, had seen the messenger enter, and guessed his errand. The +moment Mr. Allen saw this hated visage, a sudden fury took possession +of him. He crushed the missive in his clenched fist, and took a hasty +stride of wrath toward his tormentor, stopped, put his hand again to +his head, a film came over his eyes, he reeled a second, and then fell +like a stone to the floor. The heavy thud of the fall, the clash of +the chandelier overhead, could be heard throughout the rooms above the +music and hum of voices, and all were startled. Edith in the very act +of leading off in the dance stood a second like an exquisite statue of +awed expectancy, and then Zell's shriek of fear and agony, "Father!" +brought her to the spot, and with wild, frightened eyes, and blanched +faces, the two girls knelt above the unconscious man, while the +startled guests gathered round in helpless curiosity. + +The usual paralysis following sudden accident was brief on this +occasion, for there were two skilful physicians present, one of them +having long been the family attendant. Mrs. Allen and Laura, in a +half-hysterical state, stood clinging to each other, supported by Mr. +Goulden, as the medical gentlemen made a slight examination and +applied restoratives. After a moment they lifted their heads and +looked gravely and significantly at each other; then the family +adviser said: + +"Mr. Allen had better be carried at once to his room, and the house +become quiet." + +An injudicious guest asked in a loud whisper, "Is it apoplexy?" + +Mrs. Allen caught the word, and with a stifled cry fainted dead away, +and was borne to her apartment in an unconscious state. Laura, who had +inherited Mrs. Allen's nervous nature, was also conveyed to her room, +laughing and crying in turns beyond control. Zell still knelt over her +father, sobbing passionately, while Edith, with her large eyes dilated +with fear, and her cheeks in wan contrast with the sunset glow they +had worn all the evening, maintained her presence of mind, and asked +Mr. Goulden, Mr. Van Dam, and Gus Elliot, to carry her father to his +room. They, much pleased in thus being singled out as special friends +of the family, officiously obeyed. + +Poor Mr. Allen was borne away from the pinnacle of his imaginary +triumph as if dead, Zell following, wringing her hands, and with +streaming eyes; but Edith reminded one of some wild, timid creature of +the woods, which, though in an extremity of danger and fear, is alert +and watchful, as if looking for some avenue of escape. Her searching +eyes turned almost constantly toward the family physician, and he as +persistently avoided meeting them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AMONG THE BREAKERS + + + +After another brief but fuller examination of Mr. Allen in the privacy +of his own room, Dr. Mark went down to the parlors. The guests were +gathered in little groups, talking in low, excited whispers; those who +had seen the reading of the note and Mr. Allen's strange action +gaining brief eminence by their repeated statements of what they had +witnessed and their varied surmises. The role of commentator, if +mysterious human action be the text, is always popular, and as this +explanatory class are proverbially gifted in conjecture, there were +many theories of explanation. Some of the guests had already the good +taste to prepare for departure, and when Dr. Mark appeared from the +sick room, and said: + +"Mr. Allen and the family will be unable to appear again this evening. +I am under the painful necessity of saying that this occasion, which +opened so brilliantly, must now come to a sad and sudden end. I will +convey your adieux and expressions of sympathy to the family"--there +was a general move to the dressing-rooms. The doctor was overwhelmed +for a moment with expressions of sympathy, that in the main were felt, +and well questioned by eager and genuine curiosity, for Fox had +dropped some mysterious hints during the evening, which had been +quietly circulating. But Dr. Mark was professionally non-committal, +and soon excused himself that he might attend to his patient. + +The house, that seemingly a moment before was ablaze with light and +resounding with fashionable revelry, suddenly became still, and grew +darker and darker, as if the shadowing wings of the dreaded angel were +drawing very near. In the large, elegant rooms, where so short a time +before gems and eyes had vied in brightness, old Hannibal now walked +alone with silent tread and a peculiarly awed and solemn visage. One +by one he extinguished the lights, leaving but faint glimmers here and +there, that were like a few forlorn hopes struggling against the +increasing darkness of disaster. Under his breath he kept repeating +fervently, "De Lord hab mercy," and this, perhaps, was the only +intelligent prayer that went up from the stricken household in this +hour of sudden danger and alarm. Though we believe the Divine Father +sees the dumb agony of His creatures, and pities them, and often when +they, like the drowning, are grasping at straws of human help and +cheer, puts out His strong hand and holds them up; still it is in +accordance with His just law that those who seek and value His +friendship find it and possess it in adversity. The height of the +storm is a poor time and the middle of the angry Atlantic a poor place +in which to provide life-boats. + +The Allens had never looked to Heaven, save as a matter of form. They +had a pew in a fashionable church, but did not very regularly occupy +it, and such attendance had done scarcely anything to awaken or +quicken their spiritual life. They came home and gossiped about the +appearance of their "set," and perhaps criticised the music, but one +would never have dreamed from manner or conversation that they had +gone to a sacred place to worship God in humility. Indeed, scarcely a +thought of Him seemed to have dwelt in their minds. Religious faith +had never been of any practical help, and now in their extremity it +seemed utterly intangible, and in no sense to be depended on. + +When Mrs. Allen recovered from her swoon, and Laura had gained some +self-control, they sent for Dr. Mark, and eagerly suggested both their +hope and fear. + +"It's only a fainting fit, doctor, is it not? Will he not soon be +better?" + +"My dear madam, we will do all we can," said the doctor, with that +professional solemnity which might accompany the reading of a death +warrant, "but it is my painful duty to tell you to prepare for the +worst. Your husband has an attack of apoplexy." + +He had scarcely uttered the words before she was again in a swoon, and +Laura also lost her transient quietness. Leaving his assistant and +Mrs. Allen's maid to take care of them, he went back to his graver +charge. + +Mr. Allen lay insensible on his bed, and one could hardly realize that +he was a dying man. His face was as flushed and full as it often +appeared on his return from his club. To the girls' unpracticed ears, +his loud, stentorous breathing only indicated heavy sleep. But neither +they nor the doctor could arouse him, and at last the physician met +Edith's questioning eyes, and gravely and significantly shook his +head. Though she had borne up so steadily and quietly, he felt more +for her than for any of the others. + +"Oh, doctor! can't you save him?" she pleaded. + +"You must save him," cried Zell, her eyes flashing through her tears, +"I would be ashamed, if I were a physician, to stand over a strong +man, and say helplessly, 'I can do nothing.' Is this all your boasted +skill amounts to? Either do something at once or let us get some one +who will." + +"Your feelings to-night, Miss Zell," said the doctor quietly, "will +excuse anything you say, however wild and irrational. I am doing +all--" + +"I am not wild or unreasonable," cried Zell. "I only demand that my +father's life be saved." Then starting up she threw off a shawl and +stood before Dr. Mark in the dress she had worn in the evening, that +seemed a sad mockery in that room of death. Her neck and arms were +bare, and even the cool, experienced physician was startled by her +wonderful beauty and strange manner. Her white throat was convulsed, +her bosom heaved tumultuously, and on her face was the expression that +might have rested on the face of a maiden like herself centuries +before, when shown the rack and dungeon, and told to choose between +her faith and her life. + +But after a moment she extended her white rounded arm toward him and +said steadily: + +"I have read that if the blood of a young, vigorous person is infused +into another who is feeble and old, it will give renewed strength and +health. Open a vein in my arm. Save his life if you take mine." + +"You are a brave, noble girl," said Dr. Mark, with much emotion, +taking the extended hand and pressing it tenderly, "but you are asking +what is impossible in this case. Do you not remember that I am an old +friend of your father's? It grieves me to the heart that his attack is +so severe that I fear all within the reach of human skill is vain." + +Zell, who was a creature of impulse, and often of noblest impulse, as +we have seen, now reacted into a passion of weeping, and sank +helplessly on the floor. She was capable of heroic action, but she had +no strength for woman's lot, which is so often that of patient +endurance. + +Edith came and put her arms around her, and with gentle, soothing +words, as if speaking to a child, half carried her to her room, where +she at last sobbed herself asleep. + +For another hour Edith and the doctor watched alone, and the dying man +sank rapidly, going down into the darkness of death without word or +sign. + +"Oh that he would speak once more!" moaned Edith. + +"I fear he will not, my dear," said the doctor, pitifully. + +A little later Mr. Allen was motionless, like one who has been touched +in unquiet sleep and becomes still. Death had touched him, and a +deeper sleep had fallen upon him. + +One of the great daily bulletins will go to press in an hour. A +reporter jumps into a waiting hack and is driven rapidly uptown. + +While the city sleeps preparations must go on in the markets for +breakfast, and in printing rooms for that equal necessity in our day, +the latest news. Therefore all night long there are dusky figures +flitting hither and thither, seeing to it that when we come down in +gown and slippers, our steak and the world's gossip be ready. + +The breakfast of the Gothamites was furnished abundantly with _sauce +piquante_ on the morning of the last day of February, for Hannibal +had shaken his head ominously, and wiped away a few honest tears, +before he could tremulously say to the eager reporter: + +"Mr. Allen--hab--just--died." + +Gathering what few particulars he could, and imagining many more, the +reporter was driven back even more rapidly, full of the elation of a +man who has found a good thing and means to make the most of it. Mr. +Allen himself was not of importance to him, but news about him was. +And this fact crowning the story of his violation of the revenue law +and his prospective loss of a million, would make a brisk breeze in +the paper to which he was attached, and might waft him a little +further on as an enterprising news-gatherer. + +It certainly would be the topic of the day on all lips, and poor Mr. +Allen might have plumed himself on this if he had known it, for few +people, unless they commit a crime, are of sufficient importance to be +talked of all day In large, busy New York. In the world's eyes Mr. +Allen had committed a crime. Not that they regarded his stock gambling +as such. Multitudes of church members in good and regular standing +were openly engaged in this. Nor could the slight and unintentional +violation of the revenue law be regarded as such, though so grave in +its consequences. But he had faltered and died when he should not have +given way. What the world demands is success: and sometimes a devil +may secure this where a true man cannot. The world regarded Mr. Van +Dam and Mr. Goulden as very successful men. + +Mr. Fox also had secured success by one adroit wriggle--we can +describe his mode of achieving greatness by no better phrase. He was +destined to receive half a million for his treachery to his employers. +During the war, when United States securities were at their worst; +when men, pledged to take them, forfeited money rather than do so, Mr. +Allen had lent the government millions, because he believed in it, +loved it, and was resolved to sustain it. That same government now +rewards him by putting it in the power of a dishonest clerk to ruin +him, and gives him $500,000 for doing so. Thus it resulted; for we are +compelled to pass hastily over the events immediately following Mr. +Allen's death. His partners made a good fight, showed that there was +no intention to violate the law, and that it was often difficult to +comply with it literally--that the sum claimed to be lost to the +government was ridiculously disproportionate to the amount +confiscated. But it was all in vain. There was the letter of the law, +and there were Mr. Fox and his associates in the custom-house, "all +honorable men," with hands itching to clutch the plunder. + +But before this question was settled the fate of the stock operation +in Wall Street was most effectually disposed of. As soon as Mr. +Goulden heard of Mr. Allen's death, he sold at a slight loss all he +had; but his action awakened suspicion, and it was speedily learned +that the rise was due mainly to Mr. Allen's strong pushing, and the +inevitable results followed. As poor Mr. Allen's remains were lowered +into the vault, his stock in Wall Street was also going down with a +run. + +In brief, in the absence of the master's hand, and by reason of his +embarrassments, there were general wreck and ruin in his affairs; and +Mrs. Allen was soon compelled to face the fact, even more awful to her +than her husband's death, that not a penny remained of his colossal +fortune, and that she had yawningly signed away all of her own means. +But she could only wring her hands in view of these blighting truths, +and indulge in half-uttered complaints against her husband's "folly," +as she termed it. From the first her grief had been more emotional +than deep, and her mind, recovering in part its usual poise, had begun +to be much occupied with preparations for a grand funeral, which was +carried out to her taste. Then arose deeply interesting questions as +to various styles of mourning costume, and an exciting vista of +dressmaking opened before her. She was growing into quite a serene and +hopeful frame when the miserable and blighting facts all broke upon +her. When there was little of seeming necessity to do, and there were +multitudes to do for her, Mrs. Allen's nerves permitted no small +degree of activity. But now, as it became certain that she and her +daughters must do all themselves, her hands grew helpless. The idea of +being poor was to her like dying. It was entering on an experience so +utterly foreign and unknown that it seemed like going to another world +and phase of existence, and she shrank in pitiable dread from it. + +Laura had all her mother's helpless shrinking from poverty, but with +another and even bitterer ingredient added. Mr. Goulden was extremely +polite, exquisitely sympathetic, and in terms as vague as elegantly +expressed had offered to do anything (but nothing in particular) in +his power to show his regard for the family and his esteem for his +departed friend. He was very sorry that business would compel him to +leave town for some little time-- + +Laura had the spirit to interrupt him saying, "It matters little, sir. +There are no further Wall Street operations to be carried on here. +Invest your time and friendship where it will pay." + +Mr. Goulden, who plumed himself that he would slip out of this bad +matrimonial speculation with such polished skill that he would leave +only flattering regret and sighs behind, under the biting satire of +Laura's words suddenly saw what a contemptible creature is the man +whom selfish policy, rather than honor and principle, governs. He had +brains enough to comprehend himself and lose his self-respect then and +there, as he went away tingling with shame from the girl whom he had +wronged, but who had detected his sordid meanness. Sigh after him! She +would ever despise him, and that hurt Mr. Goulden's vanity severely. +He had come very near loving Laura Allen, about as near perhaps as he +ever would come to loving any one, and it had cost him a little more +to give her up than to choose between a good and a bad venture on the +Street. With compressed lips he had said to himself--"No gushing +sentiment. In carrying out your purpose to be rich you must marry +wealth." Therefore he had gone to make what he meant to be his final +call, feeling quite heroic in his steadfastness--his loyalty to +purpose, that is, himself. But as he recalled during his homeward walk +her glad welcome, her wistful, pleading looks, and then, as she +realized the truth, her pain, her contempt, and her meaning words of +scorn, his miserable egotism was swept aside, and for the first time +the selfish man saw the question from her standpoint, and as we have +said he was not so shallow but that he saw and loathed himself. He +lost his self-respect as he never had done before, and therefore to a +certain extent his power ever to be happy again. + +Small men, full of petty conceit, can recover from any wounds upon +their vanity, but proud and large-minded men have a self-respect, even +though based upon questionable foundation. It is essential to them, +and losing it they are inwardly wretched. As soldiers carry the +painful scars of some wounds through life, so Mr. Goulden would find +that Laura's words had left a sore place while memory lasted. + +Mr. Van Dam quite disarmed Edith's suspicions and prejudices by being +more friendly and intimate with Zell than ever, and the latter was +happy and exultant in the fact, saying, with much elation, that her +friend was "not a mercenary wretch, like Mr. Goulden, but remained +just as true and kind as ever." + +It was evident that this attention and show of kindness to the warm-hearted girl made a deep impression and greatly increased Mr. Van +Dam's power over her. But Edith's suspicion and dislike began to +return as she saw more of the manner and spirit of the man. She +instinctively felt that he was bad and designing. + +One day she quite incensed Zell, who was chanting his praises, by +saying: + +"I haven't any faith in him. What has he done to show real friendship +for us? He comes here only to amuse himself with you; Gus Elliot is +the only one who has been of any help." + +But Edith had her misgivings about Gus also. Now, in her trouble and +poverty, his weakness began to reveal itself in a new and repulsive +light. In fact, that exquisitely fine young gentleman loved Edith well +enough to marry her, but not to work for her. That was a sacrifice +that he could not make for any woman. Though out of his natural +kindness and good-nature he felt very sorry for her, and wanted to +help and pet her, he had been shown his danger so clearly that he was +constrained and awkward when with her, for, to tell the truth, his +father had taken him aside and said: + +"Look here, Gus. See to it that you don't entangle yourself with Miss +Allen, now her father has failed. She couldn't support you now, and +you never can support even yourself. If you would go to work like a +man--but one has got to be a man to do that. It seems true, as your +mother says, that you are of too fine clay for common uses. Therefore, +don't make a fool of yourself. You can't keep up your style on a +pretty face, and you must not wrong the girl by making her think you +can take care of her. I tell you plainly, I can't bear another ounce +added to my burden, and how long I shall stand up under it as it is, I +can't tell." + +Gus listened with a sulky, injured air. He felt that his father never +appreciated him as did his mother and sisters, and indeed society at +large. Society to Gus was the ultra-fashionable world of which he was +one of the shining lights. The ladies of the family quite restored his +equanimity by saying: + +"Now see here, Gus, don't dream of throwing yourself away on Edith +Allen. You can marry any girl you please in the city. So, for Heaven's +sake" (though what Heaven had to do with their advice it is hard to +say), "don't let her lead you on to say what you would wish unsaid. +Remember they are no more now than any other poor people, except that +they are refined, etc., but this will only make poverty harder for +them. Of course we are sorry for them, but in this world people have +got to take care of themselves. So we must be on the lookout for some +one who has money which can't be sunk in a stock operation as if +thrown into the sea." + +After all this sound reason, poor, weak Grus, vaguely conscious of his +helplessness, as stated by his father, and quite believing his +mother's assurance that "he could marry any girl he pleased," was in +no mood to urge the penniless Edith to give him her empty hand, while +before the party, when he believed it full, he was doing his best to +bring her to this point, though in fact she gave him little +opportunity. + +Edith detected the change, and before very long surmised the cause. It +made the young girl curl her lip, and say, in a tone of scorn that +would have done Gus good to hear: + +"The idea of a _man_ acting in this style." + +But she did not care enough about him to receive a wound of any depth, +and with a good-natured tolerance recognized his weakness, and his +genuine liking for her, and determined to make him useful. + +Edith was very practical, and possessed of a brave, resolute nature. +She was capable of strong feelings, but Gus Elliot was not the man to +awaken such in any woman. She liked his company, and proposed to use +him in certain ways. Under her easy manner Gus also became at ease, +and, finding that he was not expected to propose and be sentimental, +was all the more inclined to be friendly. + +"I want you to find me books, and papers also, if there are any, that +tell how to raise fruit," she said to him one day. + +"What a funny request! I should as soon expect you would ask for +instruction how to drive four-in-hand." + +"Nothing of that style, henceforth. I must learn something useful now. +Only the rich can afford to be good-for-nothing, and we are not rich +now." + +"For which I am very sorry," said Gus, with some feeling. + +"Thank you. Such disinterested sympathy is beautiful," said Edith +dryly. + +Gus looked a little red and awkward, but hastened to say, "I will hunt +up what you wish, and bring it as soon as possible." + +"Four are very good. That is all at present," said Edith, in a tone +that made Gus feel that it was indeed all that it was in his power to +do for her at that time, and he went away with a dim perception that +he was scarcely more than her errand boy. It made him very +uncomfortable. Though he wished her to understand he could not marry +her now, he wished her to sigh a little after him. Gus's vanity rather +resented that, instead of pining for him, she should with a little +quiet satire set him to work. He had never read a romance that ended +so queerly. He had expected that they might have a little tender scene +over the inexorable fate that parted them, give and take a memento, +gasp, appeal to the moon, and see each other's face no more, she going +to the work and poverty that he could never stoop to from the innate +refinement and elegance of his being, and he to hunt up the heiress to +whom he would give the honor of maintaining him in his true sphere. + +But his little melodrama was entirely spoiled by her matter-of-fact +way, and what was worse still he felt in her presence as if he did not +amount to much, and that she knew it; and yet, like the poor moth that +singes its wings around the lamp, he could not keep away. + +The prominent trait of Gus's character, as of so many others in our +luxurious age of self-pleasing, was weakness; and yet one must be +insane with vanity to be at ease if he can do nothing resolutely and +dare nothing great. He is a cripple, and, if not a fool, knows it. + +During the eventful month that followed Mr. Allen's death, Mrs. Allen +and her daughters led what seemed to them a very strange life. While +in one sense it was real and intensely painful, in another the +experiences were so new and strange that it all seemed an unreal +dream, a distressing nightmare of trouble and danger, from which they +might awaken to their old life. + +Mrs. Allen, from her large circle of acquaintances, had numerous +callers, many coming from mere morbid curiosity, more from mingled +motives, and not a few from genuine tearful sympathy. To these "her +friends," as she emphatically called them, she found a melancholy +pleasure in recounting all the recent woes, in which she ever appeared +as chief sufferer and chief mourner, though her husband seemed among +the minor losses, and thus most of her time was spent daring the last +few weeks at her old home. Her friends appeared to find a melancholy +pleasure in listening to these details and then in recounting them +again to other "friends" with a running commentary of their own, until +that little fraction of the feminine world acquainted with the Allens +had sighed, surmised, and perhaps gossiped over the "afflicted family" +so exhaustively that it was really time for something new. The men and +the papers downtown also had their say, and perhaps all tried, as far +as human nature would permit, to say nothing but good of the dead and +unfortunate. + +Laura, after the stinging pain of each successive blow to her +happiness, sank into a dreary apathy, and did mechanically the few +things Edith asked of her. + +Zell lived in varied moods and conditions, now weeping bitterly for +her father, again resenting with impotent passion the change in their +fortunes, but ending usually by comforting herself with the thought +that Mr. Van Dam was true to her. He was as true and faithful as an +insidious, incurable disease when once infused into the system. His +infernal policy now was to gradually alienate her interest from her +family and centre it in him. Though promising nothing in an open, +manly way, he adroitly made her believe that only through him, could +she now hope to reach brighter days again, and to Zell he seemed the +one means of escape from a detested life of poverty and privation. She +became more infatuated with him than ever, and cherished a secret +resentment against Edith because of her distrust and dislike of him. + +The Allens had but few near relatives in the city at this time, and +with these they were not on very good terms, nor were they the people +to be helpful in adversity. Mr. Allen's partners were men of the world +like himself, and they were also incensed that he should have been +carrying on private speculations in Wall Street to the extent of +risking all his capital. His fatal stock operation, together with the +government confiscation, had involved them also in ruin; and they had +enough to do to look after themselves. They were far more eager to +secure something out of the general wreck than to see that anything +remained for the family. The Allens were left very much to themselves +in their struggle with disaster, securing help and advice chiefly as +they paid for it. + +Mr. Allen was accustomed to say that women were incapable of business, +and yet here are the ladies of his own household compelled to grapple +with the most perplexing forms of business or suffer aggravated +losses. Though all of his family were of mature years, and thousands +had been spent on their education, they were as helpless as four +children in dealing with the practical questions that daily came to +them for decision. At first all matters were naturally referred to the +widow, but she would only wring her hands and say: + +"I don't know anything about these horrid things. Can't I be left +alone with my sorrow in peace a few days? Go to Edith." + +And to Edith at last all came till the poor girl was almost +distracted. It was of no use to go to Laura for advice, for she would +only say in dreary apathy: + +"Just as you think best. Anything you say." + +She was indulging in unrestrained wretchedness to the utmost. +Luxurious despair is so much easier than painful perplexing action. + +Zell was still "the child" and entirely occupied with Mr. Van Dam. So +Edith had to bear the brunt of everything. She did not do this in +uncomplaining sweetness, like an angel, but scolded the others soundly +for leaving all to her. They whined back that they "couldn't do +anything, and didn't know how to do anything." + +"You know as much as I do," retorted Edith. + +And this was true. Had not Edith possessed a practical resolute +nature, that preferred any kind of action to apathetic inaction and +futile grieving, she would have been as helpless as the rest. + +Do you say then that it was a mere matter of chance that Edith should +be superior to the others, and that she deserved no credit, and they +no blame? Why should such all-important conditions of character be the +mere result of chance and circumstance? Would not Christian education +and principle have vastly improved the Edith that existed? Would they +not have made the others helpful, self-forgetting, and sympathetic? +Why should the world be full of people so deformed, or morally feeble, +or so ignorant, as to be helpless? Why should the naturally strong +work with only contempt and condemnation for the weak? While many say, +"Stand aside, I am holier than thou," perhaps more say, "Stand aside, +I am wiser--stronger than thou," and the weak are made more hopelessly +discouraged. This helplessness on one hand, and arrogant fault-finding +strength on the other, are not the result of chance, but of an +imperfect education. They come from the neglect and wrong-doing of +those whose province it was to train and educate. + +If we find among a family of children reaching maturity one helpless +from deformity, and another from feebleness, and are told that the +parents, by employing surgical skill, might have removed the +deformity, and overcome the weakness by tonic treatment, but had +neglected to do so, we should not have much to say about chance. I +know of a poor man who spent nearly all that he had in the world to +have his boy's leg straightened, and he was called a "good father." +What are these physical defects compared with the graver defects of +character? + +Even though Mr. Allen is dead, we cannot say that he was a good +father, though he spent so many thousands on his daughters. We +certainly cannot call Mrs. Allen a good mother, and the proof of this +is that Laura is feeble and selfish, Zell deformed through lack of +self-control, and Edith hard and pitiless in her comparative strength. +They were unable to cope with the practical questions of their +situation. They had been launched upon the perilous, uncertain voyage +of life without the compass of a true faith or the charts of principle +to guide them, and they had been provided with no life-boats of +knowledge to save them in case of disaster. They are now tossing among +the breakers of misfortune, almost utterly the sport of the winds and +waves of circumstances. If these girls never reached the shore of +happiness and safety, could we wonder? + +How would your daughter fare, my reader, if you were gone and she were +poor, with her hands and brain to depend on for bread, and her heart +culture for happiness? In spite of all your providence and foresight, +such may be her situation. Such becomes the condition of many men's +daughters every day. + +But time and events swept the Allens forward, as the shipwrecked are +borne on the crest of a wave, and we must follow their fortunes. +Hungry creditors, especially the petty ones uptown, stripped them of +everything they could lay their hands on, and they were soon compelled +to leave their Fifth Avenue mansion. The little place in the country, +given to Edith partly in jest by her father as a birthday present, was +now their only refuge, and to this they prepared to go on the first of +April. Edith, as usual, took the lead, and was to go in advance of the +others with such furniture as they had been able to keep, and prepare +for their coming. Old Hannibal, who had grown gray in the service of +the family, and now declined to leave it, was to accompany her. On a +dark, lowering day, symbolic of their fortunes, some loaded drays took +down to the boat that with which they would commence the meagre +housekeeping of their poverty. Edith went slowly down the broad steps +leading from her elegant home, and before she entered the carriage +turned for one lingering, tearful look, such as Eve may have bent upon +the gate of Paradise closing behind her, then sprang into the +carriage, drew the curtains, and sobbed all the way to the boat. +Scarcely once before, during that long, hard month, had she so given +way to her feelings. But she was alone now and none could see her +tears and call her weak. Hannibal took his seat on the box with the +driver, and looked and felt very much as he did when following his +master to Greenwood. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WARPED + + + +It is the early breakfast hour at a small frame house, situated about +a mile from the staid but thriving village of Pushton. But the +indications around the house do not denote thrift. Quite the reverse. +As the neighbors expressed it, "there was a screw loose with Lacey," +the owner of this place. It was going down hill like its master. A +general air of neglect and growing dilapidation impressed the most +casual observer. The front gate hung on one hinge; boards were off the +shackly barn, and the house had grown dingy and weather-stained from +lack of paint. But as you entered and passed from the province of the +master to that of the mistress a new element was apparent, struggling +with, but unable to overcome, the predominant tendency to unthrift and +seediness. But everything that Mrs. Lacey controlled was as neat as +the poor overworked woman could keep it. + +At the time our story becomes interested in her fortunes, Mrs. Lacey +was a middle-aged woman, but appeared older than her years warranted, +from the long-continued strain of incessant toil, and from that which +wears much faster still, the depression of an unhappy, ill-mated life. +Her face wore the pathetic expression of confirmed discouragement. She +reminded one of soldiers fighting when they know that it is of no use, +and that defeat will be the only result, but who fight on +mechanically, in obedience to orders. + +She is now placing a very plain but wholesome and well-prepared +breakfast on the table, and it would seem that both the eating and +cooking were carried on in the same large living-room. Her daughter, a +rosy-cheeked, half-grown girl of fourteen, was assisting her, and both +mother and daughter seemed in a nervous state of expectancy, as if +hoping and fearing the result of a near event. A moment's glance +showed that this event related to a lad of about seventeen, who was +walking about the room, vainly trying to control the agitation which +is natural even to the cool and experienced when feeling that they are +at one of the crises of life. + +It could not be expected of Arden Lacey at his age to be cool and +experienced. Indeed his light curling hair, blue eyes, and a mobile +sensitive mouth, suggested the reverse of a stolid self-poise, or +cheerful endurance. Any one accustomed to observe character could see +that he was possessed of a nervous, fine-fibred nature capable of +noble achievement under right influences, but also easily warped and +susceptible to sad injury under brutal wrong. He was like those +delicate and somewhat complicated musical instruments that produce the +sweetest harmonies when in tune and well played upon, but the most +jangling discords when unstrung and in rough, ignorant hands. He had +inherited his nervous temperament, his tendency to irritation and +excess, from the diseased, over-stimulated system of his father, who +was fast becoming a confirmed inebriate, and who had been poisoning +himself with bad liquors all his life. From his mother he had obtained +what balance he had in temperament, but he owed more to her daily +influence and training. It was the one struggle of the poor woman's +life to shield her children from the evil consequences of their +father's life. For her son she had special anxiety, knowing his +sensitive, high-strung nature, and his tendency to go headlong into +evil if his self-respect and self-control were once lost. His +passionate love for her had been the boy's best trait, and through +this she had controlled him thus far. But she had thought that it +might be best for him to be away from his father's presence and +influence if she could only find something that accorded with his +bent. And this eventually proved to be a college education. The boy +was of a quick and studious mind. From earliest years he had been fond +of books, and as time advanced, the passion for study and reading grew +upon him. He had a strong imagination, and his favorite styles of +reading were such as appealed to this. In the scenes of history and +romance he escaped from the sordid life of toil and shame to which his +father condemned him, into a large realm that seemed rich and +glorified in contrast. When he was but fourteen the thought of a +liberal education fired his ambition and became the dream of his life. +He made the very most of the district school to which he was sent in +winter. The teacher happened to be a well-educated man, and took pride +in his apt, eager scholar. Between the boy's and the mother's savings +they had obtained enough to secure private lessons in Latin and Greek, +and now at the age of seventeen he was tolerably well prepared for +college. + +But the father had no sympathy at all with these tastes, and from the +incessant labor he required of his son, and the constant interruptions +he occasioned in his studies even in winter, he had been a perpetual +bar to all progress. + +On the day previous to the scene described in the opening of this +chapter, the winter term had closed, and Mr. Rule, the teacher, had +declared that Arden could enter college, and with natural pride in his +own work as instructor, intimated that he would lead his class if he +did. + +Both mother and son were so elated at this that they determined at +once to state the fact to the father, thinking that if he had any of +the natural feelings of a parent he would take some pride in his boy, +and be willing to help him obtain the education he longed for. + +But there is little to be hoped from a man who is completely under the +influence of ignorance and rum. Mr. Lacey was the son of a small +farmer like himself, and never had anything to recommend him but his +fine looks, which had captivated poor Mrs. Lacey to her cost. Unlike +the majority of his class, who are fast becoming a very intelligent +part of the community, and are glad to educate their children, he +boasted that he liked the "old ways," and by these he meant the worst +ways of his father's day, when books and schools were scarce, and few +newspapers found their way to rural homes. He was, like his father +before him, a graduate of the village tavern, and had imbibed bad +liquor and his ideas of life at the same time from that objectionable +source. With the narrow-mindedness of his class, he had a prejudice +against all learning that went beyond the three R's, and had watched +with growing disapprobation his son's taste for books, believing that +it would spoil him as a farm hand, and make him an idle dreamer. He +was less and less inclined to work himself as his frame became +diseased and enfeebled from intemperance, and he determined now to get +as much work as possible out of that "great hulk of a boy," as he +called Arden. He had picked up some hints of the college hopes, and +the very thought angered him. He determined that when the boy broached +the subject he would give him such a "jawing" (to use his own +vernacular) "as would put an end to that nonsense." Therefore both +Arden and his mother, who were waiting as we have described in such a +perturbed anxious state for his entrance, were doomed to bitter +disappointment. At last a heavy red-faced man entered the kitchen, +stalking in on the white floor out of the drizzling rain with his +muddy boots leaving tracks and blotches in keeping with his character. +But he had the grace to wash his grimy hands before sitting down to +the table. He was always in a bad humor in the morning, and the chilly +rain had not improved it. A glance around showed him that something +was on hand, and he surmised that it was the college business. He at +once thought within himself: + +"I'll squelch the thing now, once for all." + +Turning to his son, he said, "Look here, youngster, why hain't you +been out doing your chores? D'ye expect me to do your work and mine, +too?" + +"Father," said the impulsive boy with a voice of trembling eagerness, +"if you will let me go to college next fall, I'll do my work and yours +too. I'll work night and day--" + +"What cussed nonsense is this?" demanded the man harshly, clashing +down his knife and fork and turning frowningly toward his son. + +"No, but father, listen to me before you refuse. Mr. Rule says I'm fit +to enter college and that I can lead my class too. I've been studying +for this three years. I've set my heart upon it," and in his +earnestness, tears gathered in his eyes. + +"The more fool you, and old Rule is another," was the coarse answer. + +The boy's eyes flashed angrily, but the mother here spoke. + +"You ought to be proud of your son, John; if you were a true father +you would be. If you'd encourage and help him now, he'd make a man +that--" + +"Shut up! little you know about it. He'd make one of your snivelling +white-fingered loafers that's too proud to get a living by hard work. +Perhaps you'd like to make a parson out of him. Now look here, old +woman, and you, too, my young cock, I've suspicioned that something of +this kind was up, but I tell you once for all it won't go. Just as +this hulk of a boy is gettin' of some use to me, you want to spoil him +by sending him to college. I'll see him hanged first," and the man +turned to his breakfast as if he had settled it. But he was startled +by his son's exclaiming passionately: + +"I will go." + +"Look here, what do _you_ mean?" said the father, rising with a black +ugly look. + +"I mean I've set my heart on going to college and I will go. You and +all the world shan't hinder me. I won't stay here and be a farm drudge +all my life." + +The man's face was livid with anger, and in a low, hissing tone he +said: + +"I guess you want taking down a peg, my college gentleman. Perhaps you +don't know I'm master till you're twenty-one," and he reached down a +large leather strap. + +"You strike me if you dare," shouted the boy. + +"If I dare! haw! haw! If I don't cut the cussed nonsense out of yer +this morning, then I never did," and he took an angry stride toward +his son, who sprang behind the stove. + +The wife and mother had stood by growing whiter and whiter, and with +lips pressed closely together. At this critical moment she stepped +before her infuriated husband and seized his arm, exclaiming: + +"John, take care. You have reached the end." + +"Stand aside," snarled the man, raising the strap, "or I'll give you a +taste of it, too." + +The woman's grasp tightened on his arm, and in a voice that made him +pause and look fixedly at her, she said: + +"If you strike me or that boy I'll take my children and we will leave +your roof this hateful day never to return." + +"Hain't I to be master in my own house?" said the husband sullenly. + +"You are not to be a brute in your own house. I know you've struck me +before, but I endured it and said nothing about it because you were +drunk, but you are not drunk now, and if you lay a finger on me or my +son to-day, I will never darken your doors again." + +The unnatural father saw that he had gone too far. He had not expected +such an issue. He had long been accustomed to follow the lead of his +brutal passions, but had now reached a point where he felt he must +stop, as his wife said. Turning on his heel, he sullenly took his +place at the table, muttering: + +"It's a pretty pass when there's mutiny in a man's own house." Then to +his son, "You won't get a d--n cent out of me for your college +business, mind that." + +Rose, the daughter, who had been crying and wringing her hands on the +door-step, now came timidly in, and at a sign from her mother she and +her brother went into another room. + +The man ate for a while in dogged silence, but at last in a tone that +was meant to be somewhat conciliatory said: + +"What the devil did you mean by putting the boy up to such +foolishness?" + +"Hush!" said his wife imperiously, "I'm in no mood to talk with you +now." + +"Oh, ah, indeed, a man can't even speak in his own house, eh? I guess +I'll take myself off to where I can have a little more liberty," and +he went out, harnessed his old white horse, and started for his +favorite groggery in the village. + +His father had no sooner gone than Arden came out and said +passionately: + +"It's no use, mother, I can't stand it; I must leave home to-day. I +guess I can make a living; at any rate I'd rather starve than pass +through such scenes." + +The poor, overwrought woman threw herself down in a low chair and +sobbed, rocking herself back and forth. + +"Wait till I die, Arden, wait till I die. I feel it won't be long. +What have I to live for but you and Rosy? And if you, my pride and +joy, go away after what has happened, it will be worse than death," +and a tempest of grief shook her gaunt frame. + +Arden was deeply moved. Boylike he had been thinking only of himself, +but now as never before he realized her hard lot, and in his warm, +impulsive heart there came a yearning tenderness for her such as he +had never felt before. He took her in his arms and kissed and +comforted her, till even her sore heart felt the healing balm of love +and ceased its bitter aching. At last she dried her eyes and said with +a faint smile: "With such a boy to pet me, the world isn't all flint +and thorns yet." + +And Rosy came and kissed her too, for she was an affectionate child, +though a little inclined to be giddy and vain. + +"Don't worry, mother," said Arden. "I will stay and take such good +care of you that you will have many years yet, and happier ones, too, +I hope," and he resolved to keep this promise, cost what it might. + +"I hardly think I ought to ask it of you, though even the thought of +your going away breaks my heart." "I will stay," said the boy, almost +as passionately as he had said, "I will go." "I now see how much you +need a protector." + +That night the father came home so stupidly drunk that they had to +half carry him to bed where he slept heavily till morning, and rose +considerably shaken and depressed from his debauch. The breakfast was +as silent as it had been stormy on the previous day. After it was +over, Arden followed his father to the door and said: + +"I was a boy yesterday morning, but you made me a man, and a rather +ugly one too. I learned then for the first time that you occasionally +strike my mother. Don't you ever do it again, or it will be worse for +you, drunk or sober. I am not going to college, but will stay at home +and take care of her. Do we understand each other?" + +The man was in such a low, shattered condition that his son's bearing +cowed him, and he walked off muttering: + +"Young cocks crow mighty loud," but from that time forward he never +offered violence to his wife or children. + +Still his father's conduct and character had a most disastrous effect +upon the young man. He was soured, because disappointed in his most +cherished purpose at an age when most youths scarcely have definite +plans. Many have a strong natural bent, and if turned aside from this, +they are more or less unhappy, and their duties, instead of being +wings to help life forward, become a galling yoke. + +This was the case with Arden. Farm work, as he had learned it from his +father, was coarse, heavy drudgery, with small and uncertain returns, +and these were largely spent at the village rum shops in purchasing +slow perdition for the husband, and misery and shame for his wife and +children. In respectable Pushton, a drunkard's family, especially if +poor, had a very low social status. Mrs. Lacey and her children would +not accept of bad associations, so they had scarcely any. This +ostracism, within certain limits, is perhaps right. The preventive +penalties of vice can scarcely be too great, and men and women must be +made to feel that wrong-doing is certain to be followed by terrible +consequences. The fire is merciful in that it always burns, and sin +and suffering are inseparably linked. But the consequences of one +person's sin often blight the innocent. The necessity of this from our +various ties should be a motive, a hostage against sinning, and +doubtless restrains many a one who would go headlong under evil +impulses. But multitudes do slip off the paths of virtue, and helpless +wives, and often helpless husbands and children, writhe from wounds +made by those under sacred obligations to shield them. Upon the +families of criminals, society visits a mildew of coldness and scorn +that blights nearly all chance of good fruit. But society is very +unjust in its discriminations, and some of the most heinous sins in +God's sight are treated as mere eccentricities, or condemned in the +poor, but winked at in the rich. Gentlemen will admit to their parlors +men about whom they know facts which if true of a woman would close +every respectable door against her, and God frowns on the Christian +(?) society that makes such arbitrary and unjust distinctions. Cast +both out, till they bring forth fruits meet for repentance. + +But we hope for little of a reformative tendency from the selfish +society of the world. Changing human fashion rules it, rather than the +eternal truth of the God of love. The saddest feature of all is that +the shifting code of fashion is coming more and more to govern the +church. Doctrine may remain the same, profession and intellectual +belief the same, while practical action drifts far astray. There are +multitudes of wealthy churches, that will no more admit associations +with that class among which our Lord lived and worked, than will +select society. They seem designed to help only respectable, well-connected sinners, toward heaven. + +This tendency has two phases. In the cities the poor are practically +excluded from worshipping with the rich, and missions are established +for them as if they were heathen. There can be no objection to costly, +magnificent churches. Nothing is too good to be the expression of our +honor and love of God. But they should be like the cathedrals of +Europe, where prince and peasant may bow together on the same level +they have in the Divine presence. Christ made no distinction between +the rich and poor regarding their spiritual value and need, nor should +the Christianity named after Him. To the degree that it does, it is +not Christianity. The meek and lowly Nazarene is not its inspiration. +Perhaps the personage He told to get behind Him when promising the +"kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" has more to do with it. + +The second phase of this tendency as seen in the country, is kindred +but unlike. Poverty may not be so great a bar, but moral delinquencies +are more severely visited, and the family under a cloud, through the +wrong-doing of one or more of its members, is treated very much as if +it had a perpetual pestilence. The highly respectable keep aloof. Too +often the quiet country church is not a sanctuary and place of refuge +for the victims either of their own or another's sin, a place where +the grasp of sympathy and words of encouragement are given; but rather +a place where they meet the cold critical gaze of those who are hedged +about with virtues and good connections. I hope I am wrong, but how is +it where you live, my reader? If a well-to-do thriving man of +integrity takes a fine place in your community, we all know how church +people will treat him. And what they do is all right. But society--the +world--will do the same. Is Christianity--are the followers of the +"Friend of publicans and sinners"--to do no more? + +If in contrast a drunken wretch like Lacey with his wife and children +come in town on top of a wagon-load of shattered furniture, and all +are dumped down in a back alley to scramble into the shelter of a +tenement house as best they can, do you call upon them? Do you invite +them to your pew? Do you ever urge and encourage them to enter your +church? and do you make even one of its corners homelike and inviting? + +I hope so; but, alas! that was not the general custom in Pushton, and +poor Mrs. Lacey had acquired the habit of staying at home, her +neighbors had become accustomed to call her husband a "dreadful man," +and the family "very irreligious," and as the years passed they seemed +to be more and more left to themselves. Mr. Lacey had brought his wife +from a distant town where he had met and married her. She was a timid, +retiring woman, and time and kindness were needed to draw her out. But +no one had seemingly thought it worth while, and at the time our story +takes an interest in their affairs, there was a growing isolation. + +All this had a very bad effect upon Arden. As he grew out of the +democracy of boyhood he met a certain social coldness and distance +which he learned to understand only too early, and soon returned this +treatment with increased coldness and aversion. Had it not been for +the influence of his mother and the books he read, he would have +inevitably fallen into low company. But he had promised his mother to +shun it. He saw its result in his father's conduct, and as he read, +and his mind matured, the narrow coarseness of such company became +repugnant. From time to time he was sorely tempted to leave the home +which his father made hateful in many respects, and try his fortunes +among strangers who would not associate him with a sot; but his love +for his mother kept him at her side, for he saw that her life was +bound up in him, and that he alone could protect her and his sister +and keep some sort of a shelter for them. In his unselfish devotion to +them his character was noble. In his harsh cynicism toward the world +and especially the church people, for whom he had no charity whatever +--in his utter hatred and detestation of his father--it was faulty, +though allowance must be made for him. He was also peculiar in other +respects, for his unguided reading was of a nature that fed his +imagination at the expense of his reasoning faculties. Though he +drudged in a narrow round, and his life was as hard and real as +poverty and his father's intemperance could make it, he mentally lived +and found his solace in a world as large and unreal as an uncurbed +fancy could create. Therefore his work was hurried through +mechanically in the old slovenly methods to which he had been +educated, he caring little for the results, as his father squandered +these; and when the necessary toil was over, he would lose all sense +of the sordid present in the pages of some book obtained from the +village library. As he drove his milk cart to and from town he would +sit in the chill drizzling rain, utterly oblivious of discomfort, with +a half smile upon his lips, as he pictured to himself some scene of +sunny aspect or gloomy castellated grandeur of which his own +imagination was the architect. The famous in history, the heroes and +heroines of fiction, and especially the characters of Shakespeare were +more familiar to him than the people among whom he lived. From the +latter he stood more and more aloof, while with the former he held +constant intercourse. He had little in common even with his sister, +who was of a very different temperament. But his tenderness toward his +mother never failed, and she loved him with the passionate intensity +of a nature to which love was all, but which had found little to +satisfy it on earth, and was ignorant of the love of God. + +And so the years dragged on to Arden, and hiss twenty-first birthday +made him free from his father's control as he practically long had +been, but it also found him bound more strongly than ever by his +mother's love and need to his old home life. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A DESERT ISLAND + + + +The good cry that Edith indulged in on her way to the boat was a +relief to her heart, which had long been overburdened. But the +necessity of controlling her feelings, and the natural buoyancy of +youth, enabled her by the time they reached the wharf to see that the +furniture and baggage were properly taken care of. No one could detect +the traces of grief through her thick veil, or guess from her firm, +quiet tones, that she felt somewhat as Columbus might when going in +search of a new world. And yet Edith had a hope from her country life +which the others did not share at all. + +When she was quite a child her feeble health had induced her father to +let her spend an entire summer in a farmhouse of the better class, +whose owner had some taste for flowers and fruit. These she had +enjoyed and luxuriated in as much as any butterfly of the season, and +as she romped with the farmer's children, roamed the fields and woods +in search of berries, and tumbled in the fragrant hay, health came +tingling back with a fullness and vigor that had never been lost. With +all her subsequent enjoyment, that summer still dwelt in her memory as +the halcyon period of her life, and it was with the country she +associated it. Every year she had longed for July, for then her father +would break away from business for a couple of months and take them to +a place of resort. But the fashionable watering-places were not at all +to her taste as compared with that old farmhouse, and whenever it was +possible she would wander off and make "disreputable acquaintances," +as Mrs. Allen termed them, among the farmers' and laborers' families +in the vicinity of the hotel. But by this means she often obtained a +basket of fruit or bunch of flowers that the others were glad to share +in. + +In accordance with her practical nature she asked questions as to the +habits, growth, and culture of trees and fruits, so that few city +girls situated as she had been knew as much about the products of the +garden. She had also haunted conservatories and green-houses as much +as her sisters had frequented the costly Broadway temples of fashion, +where counters are the altars to which the women of the city bring +their daily offerings; and as we have seen, a fruit store was a place +of delight to her. + +The thought that she could now raise without limit fruit, flowers, and +vegetables on her own place was some compensation even for the trouble +they had passed through and the change in their fortunes. + +Moreover she knew that because of their poverty she would have to +secure from her ground substantial returns, and that her gardening +must be no amateur trifling, but earnest work. Therefore, having found +a seat in the saloon of the boat, she drew out of her leather bag one +of her garden-books and some agricultural papers, and commenced +studying over for the twentieth time the labors proper for April. +After reading a while, she leaned back and closed her eyes and tried +to form such crude plans as were possible in her inexperience and her +ignorance of a place that she had not even seen. + +Opening her eyes suddenly she saw old Hannibal sitting near and +regarding her wistfully. + +"You are a foolish old fellow to stay with us," she said to him. "You +could have obtained plenty of nice places in the city. What made you +do it?" + +"I'se couldn't gib any good reason to de world, Miss Edie, but de one +I hab kinder satisfies my ole black heart." + +"Your heart isn't black, Hannibal." + +"How you know dat?" he asked quickly. + +"Because I've seen it often and often. Sometimes I think it is whiter +than mine. I now and then feel so desperate and wicked, that I am +afraid of myself." + +"Dere now, you'se worried and worn-out and you tinks dat's bein' +wicked." + +"No. I'm satisfied it is something worse than that. I wonder if God +does care about people who are in trouble, I mean practically, so as +to help them any?" + +"Well, I specs he does," said Hannibal vaguely. "But den dere's so +many in trouble dat I'm afeard some hab to kinder look after +demselves." Then as if a bright thought struck him, he added, "I specs +he sorter lumps 'em jes as Massa Allen did when he said he was sorry +for de people burned up in Chicago. He sent 'em a big lot ob money and +den seemed to forget all about 'em." + +Hannibal had never given much attention to religion, and perhaps was +not the best authority that Edith could have consulted. But his +conclusion seemed to secure her consent, for she leaned back wearily +and again closed her eyes, saying: + +"Yes, we are mere human atoms, lost sight of in the multitude." + +Soon her deep regular breathing showed that she was asleep, and +Hannibal muttered softly: + +"Bress de child, dat will do her a heap more good dan askin' dem deep +questions," and he watched beside her like a large faithful +Newfoundland dog. + +At last he touched her elbow and said, "We get off at de next landin', +and I guess we mus' be pretty nigh dere." + +Edith started up much refreshed and asked, "What sort of an evening is +it?" + +"Well, I'se sorry to say it's rainin' hard and berry dark." + +To her dismay she also found that it was nearly nine o'clock. The boat +had been late in starting, and was so heavily laden as to make slow +progress against wind and tide. Edith's heart sank within her at the +thought of landing alone in a strange place that dismal night. It was +indeed a new experience to her. But she donned her waterproof, and the +moment the boat touched the wharf, hurried ashore, and stood under her +small umbrella, while her household gods were being hustled out into +the drenching rain. She knew the injury that must result to them +unless they could speedily be carried into the boat-house near. At +first there seemed no one to do this save Hannibal, who at once set to +work, but she soon observed a man with a lantern gathering up some +butter-tubs that the boat was landing, and she immediately appealed to +him for help. + +"I'm not the dock-master," was the gruff reply. + +"You are a man, are you not? and one that will not turn away from a +lady in distress. If my things stand long in this rain they will be +greatly injured." + +The man thus adjured turned his lantern on the speaker, and while we +recognize the features of our acquaintance, Arden Lacey, he sees a +face on the old dock that quite startles him. If Edith had dropped +down with the rain, she could not have been more unexpected, and with +her large dark eyes flashing suddenly on him, and her appealing yet +half-indignant voice breaking in upon the waking dream with which he +was beguiling the outward misery of the night, it seemed as if one of +the characters of his fancy had suddenly become real. He who would +have passed Edith in surly unnoting indifference on the open street in +the garish light of day, now took the keenest interest in her. He had +actually been appealed to, as an ancient knight might have been, by a +damsel in distress, and he turned and helped her with a will, which, +backed by his powerful strength, soon placed her goods under shelter. +The lagging dock-master politicly kept out of the way till the work +was almost done and then bustled up and made some show of assisting in +time for any fees, if they should be offered, but Arden told him that +since he had kept out of sight so long, he might remain invisible, +which was the unpopular way the young man had. + +When the last article had been placed under shelter Edith said: + +"I appreciate your help exceedingly. How much am I to pay you for your +trouble?" + +"Nothing," was the rather curt reply. + +The appearance of a lady like Edith, with a beauty that seemed weird +and strange as he caught glimpses of her face by the fitful rays of +his lantern, had made a sudden and strong impression on his morbid +fancy and fitted the wild imaginings with which he had occupied the +dreary hour of waiting for the boat. The presence of her sable +attendant had increased these impressions. But when she took out her +purse to pay him his illusions vanished. Therefore the abrupt tone in +which he said "Nothing," and which was mainly caused by vexation at +the matter-of-fact world that continually mocked his unreal one. + +"I don't quite understand you," said Edith. "I had no intention of +employing your time and strength without remuneration." + +"I told you I was not the dock-master," said Arden rather coldly. +"He'll take all the fees you will give him. You appealed to me as a +man, and said you were in distress. I helped you as a man. Good-evening." + +"Stay," said Edith hastily. "You seem not only a man, but a gentleman, +and I am tempted, in view of my situation, to trespass still further +on your kindness," but she hesitated a moment. + +It perhaps had never been intimated to Arden before that he was a +gentleman, certainly never in the tone with which Edith spoke, and his +fanciful, chivalric nature responded at once to the touch of that +chord. With the accent of voice he ever used toward his mother, he +said: + +"I am at your service." + +"We are strangers here," continued Edith. "Is there any place near the +landing where we can get safe, comfortable lodging?" + +"I am sorry to say there is not. The village is a mile away." + +"How can we get there?" + +"Isn't the stage down?" asked Arden of the dock-master. + +"No!" was the gruff response. + +"The night is so bad I suppose they didn't come. I would take you +myself in a minute if I had a suitable wagon." + +"Necessity knows no choice," said Edith quickly. "I will go with you +in any kind of a wagon, and I surely hope you won't leave me on this +lonely dock in the rain." + +"Certainly not," said Arden, reddening in the darkness that he could +be thought capable of such an act. "But I thought I could drive to the +village and send a carriage for you." + +"I would rather go with you now, if you will let me," said Edith +decidedly. + +"The best I have is at your service, but I fear you will be sorry for +your choice. I've only a board for a seat, and my wagon has no +springs. Perhaps I could get a low box for you to sit on." + +"Hannibal can sit on the box. With your permission I will sit with +you, for I wish to ask you some questions." + +Arden hung his lantern on a hook in front of his wagon, and helped or +partly lifted Edith over the wheel to the seat, which was simply a +board resting on the sides of the box. He turned a butter-tub upside +down for Hannibal, and then they jogged out from behind the boat-house +where he had sheltered his horses. + +This was all a new experience to Arden. He had, from his surly +misanthropy, little familiarity with society of any kind, and since as +a boy he had romped with the girls at school he had been almost a +total stranger to all women save those in his own home. Most young men +would have been awkward louts under the circumstances. But this was +not true of Arden, for he had daily been holding converse in the books +he dreamed over with women of finer clay than he could have found at +Pushton. He would have been excessively awkward in a drawing-room or +any place of conventional resort, or rather he would have been sullen +and bearish, but the place and manner in which he had met Edith +accorded with his romantic fancy, and the darkness shielded his rough +exterior from observation. + +Moreover, the presence of this flesh-and-blood woman at his side gave +him different sensations from the stately dames, or even the most +piquant maidens that had smiled upon him in the shadowy scenes of his +imagination; and when at times, as the wagon jolted heavily, she +grasped his arm for a second to steady herself, it seemed as if the +dusky little figure at his side was a sort of human electric battery +charged with that subtile fluid which some believe to be the material +life of the universe. Every now and then as they bounced over a stone, +the lantern would bob up and throw a ray on a face like those that had +looked out upon him from those plays of Shakespeare the scenes of +which are laid in Italy. + +Thus the dark, chilly, rainy night was becoming the most luminous +period of his life. Reason and judgment act slowly, but imagination +takes fire. + +But to poor Edith all was real and dismal enough, and she often sighed +heavily. To Arden each sigh was an appeal for sympathy. He had driven +as rapidly as he dared in the darkness to get her out of the rain, but +at last she said, clinging to his arm: + +"Won't you drive slowly? The jolting has given me a pain in my side." + +He was conscious of a new and peculiar sensation there also, though +not from jolting. He had been used to that in many ways all his life, +but thereafter they jogged forward on a walk through the drizzling +rain, and Edith, recovering her breath, and a sense of security, began +to asked the questions. + +"Do you know where the cottage is that was formerly owned by Mr. +Jenks?" + +"Oh, yes, it's not far from our house--between our house and the +village." Then as if a sudden thought struck him he added quickly, "I +heard it was sold; are you the owner?" + +"Yes," said Edith a little coolly. She had expected to question and +not to be questioned. And yet she was very glad she had met one who +knew about her place. But she resolved to be non-committal till she +knew more about him. + +"What sort of a house is it?" she asked after a moment. "I have never +seen it." + +"Well, it's not very large, and I fear it is somewhat out of repair--at least it looks so, and I should think a new roof was needed." + +Edith could not help saying pathetically, "Oh, dear! I'm so sorry." + +Arden then added hastily, "But it's a kind of a pretty place too--a +great many fruit-trees and grapevines on it." + +"So I've been told," said Edith. "And that will be its chief +attraction to me." + +"Then you are going to live there?" + +"Yes." + +Arden's heart gave a sudden throb. Then he would see this mysterious +stranger often. But he smiled half bitterly in the darkness as he +queried, "What will she appear like in the daylight?" + +Her next question broke the spell he was under utterly. They were +passing through the village and the little hotel was near, and she +naturally asked: + +"To whom am I indebted for all this kindness? I am glad to know so +much as that you are my neighbor." + +Suddenly and painfully conscious of his outward life and surroundings, +he answered briefly: + +"My name is Arden Lacey. We have a small farm a little beyond your +cottage." + +Wondering at his change of tone and manner, Edith still ventured to +ask: + +"And do you know of any one who could bring my furniture and things up +to-morrow?" + +As he sometimes did that kind of work, an impulse to see more of her +impelled him to say: + +"I suppose I can do it. I work for a living." + +"I am sure that is nothing against you," said Edith kindly. + +"You will not live long in Pushton before learning that there is +something against us," was the bitter reply. "But that need not +prevent my working for you, as I do for others. If you wish, I will +make a fire in your house early, to take off the chill and dampness, +and then go for your furniture. The people here will send you out in a +carriage." "I shall be greatly obliged if you will do so and let me +pay you." + +"Oh, certainly, I will charge the usual rates." + +"Well, then, how much for to-night?" said Edith as she stood in the +hotel door. + +"To-night is another affair," and he jumped into his wagon and rattled +away in the darkness, his lantern looking like a "will-o'-the-wisp" +that might vanish altogether. + +The landlord received Edith and her attendant with a gruff civility, +and gave her in charge of his wife, who was a bustling red-faced woman +with a sort of motherly kindness about her. + +"Why, you poor child," she said to Edith, turning her round before the +light, "you're half drowned. You must have something hot right away, +or you'll take your death o' cold," and with something of her +husband's faith in whiskey, she soon brought Edith a hot punch that +for a few moments seemed to make the girl's head spin, but as it was +followed by strong tea and toast, she felt none the worse, and danger +from the chill and wet was effectually disposed of. + +As she sat sipping her tea before a red-hot stove, she told, in answer +to the landlady's questions, how she had got up from the boat. + +"Who is this Lacey, and what is there against them?" she asked +suddenly. + +The hostess went across the hall, opened the bar-room door, and +beckoned Edith to follow her. + +In a chair by the stove sat a miserable bloated wreck of a man, +drivelling and mumbling in a drunken lethargy. + +"That's his father," said the woman in a whisper. "When he gets as bad +as that he comes here because he knows my husband is the only one as +won't turn him out of doors." + +An expression of intense disgust flitted across Edith's face, and by +the necessary law of association poor Arden sank in her estimation +through the foulness of his father's vice. + +"Is there anything against the son?" asked Edith in some alarm. "I've +engaged him to bring up my furniture and trunks. I hope he's honest." + +"Oh, yes, he's honest enough, and he'd be mighty mad if anybody +questioned that, but he's kind o' soured and ugly, and don't notice +nobody nor nothing. The son and Mrs. Lacey keep to themselves, the man +does as you see, but the daughter, who's a smart, pretty girl, tries +to rise above it all, and make her way among the rest of the girls; +but she has a hard time of it, I guess, poor child." + +"I don't wonder," said Edith, "with such a father." + +But between the punch and fatigue, she was glad to take refuge from +the landlady's garrulousness, and all her troubles in quiet sleep. + +The next morning the storm was passing away in broken masses of cloud, +through which the sun occasionally shone in April-like uncertainty. + +After an early breakfast she and Hannibal were driven in an open wagon +to what was to be her future home--the scene of unknown joys and +sorrows. + +The most memorable places, where the mightiest events of the world +have transpired, can never have for us the interest of that humble +spot where the little drama of our own life will pass from act to act +till our exit. + +Most eagerly did Edith note everything as revealed by the broad light +of day. The village, though irregular, had a general air of +thriftiness and respectability. The street through which she was +riding gradually fringed off, from stores and offices, into neat +homes, farmhouses, and here and there the abodes of the poor, till at +last, three-quarters of a mile out, she saw a rather quaint little +cottage with a roof steeply sloping and a long low porch. + +"That's your place, miss," said the driver. + +Edith's intent eyes took in the general effect with something of the +practiced rapidity with which she mastered a lady's toilet on the +avenue. + +In spite of her predisposition to be pleased, the prospect was +depressing. The season was late and patches of discolored snow lay +here and there, and were piled up along the fences. The garden and +trees had a neglected look. The vines that clambered up the porch had +been untrimmed of the last year's growth, and sprawled in every +direction. The gate hung from one hinge, and many palings were off the +fence, and all had a sodden, dingy appearance from the recent rains. +The house itself looked so dilapidated and small, in contrast with +their stately mansion on Fifth Avenue, that irrepressible tears came +into her eyes, as she murmured: + +"It will kill mother just to see it." + +Old Hannibal said in a low, encouraging tone, "It'll look a heap +better next June, Miss Edie." + +But Edith dropped her veil to hide her feelings, and shook her head. + +They got down before the rickety gate, took out the basket of +provisions which Hannibal had secured, paid the driver, who splashed +away through the mud as a boat might that had landed and left two +people on a desert island. They walked up the oozy path with hearts +about as chill and empty as the unfurnished cottage before them. + +But utter repulsiveness had been taken away by a bright fire that +Arden had kindled on the hearth of the largest room; and when lighting +it he had been so romantic as to dream of the possibility of kindling +a more sacred fire in a heart that he knew now to be as cold to him as +the chilly room in which he shivered. + +Poor Arden! If he could have seen the expression on Edith's face the +night previous, as she looked on his besotted father, he would have +cursed more bitterly than ever what he termed the blight of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EDITH BECOMES A "DIVINITY" + + + +As the wrecked would hasten up the strand and explore eagerly in +various directions in order to gain some idea of the nature and +resources of the place where they might spend months and even years, +so Edith hurriedly passed from one room to another, looking the house +over first, as their place of refuge and centre of life, and then went +out to a spot from which she could obtain a view of the garden, the +little orchard, and the pasture field. + +The house had three rooms on the first floor, as many on the second, +and a very small attic. There was also a pretty good cellar, though it +looked to Edith like a black, dismal hole, and was full of rubbish and +old boxes. + +The entrance of the house was at the commencement of the porch, which +ran along under the windows of the large front room. Back of this was +one much smaller, and doors opened from both the apartments named into +a long and rather narrow room running the full depth of the house, and +which had been designed as the kitchen. With the families that would +naturally occupy a house of this character, it would have been the +general living-room. To Edith's eyes, accustomed to magnificent spaces +and lofty ceilings, these apartments seemed stifling dingy cells. The +walls were broken in places and discolored by smoke. With the +exception of the large room there were no places for open fires, but +only holes for stovepipes. + +"How can such a place as this ever look homelike?" + +The muddy garden, with its patches of snow, its forlorn and neglected +air, its spreading vines and the thickly standing stalks of last +year's weeds, was even less inviting. Edith had never seen the country +in winter, and the gardens of her experience were full of green, +beautiful life. The orchard looked not only gaunt and bare, but very +untidy. The previous year had been most abundant in fruit, and the +trees were left to bear at will. Therefore many of the limbs were +wholly or partly broken off, and lay scattered where they fell, or +still hung by a little of the woody fibre and bark. + +Edith came back to the fire from the survey of her future home, not +only chilled in body by the raw April winds, but more chilled in +heart. Though she had not expected summer greenness and a sweet +inviting home, yet the reality was so dreary and forbidding, from its +necessary contrast with the past, that she sank down on the floor, and +buried her head in her lap in an uncontrollable passion of grief. +Hannibal was out gathering wood to replenish the fire, and it was a +luxury to be alone a few minutes with her sorrow. + +But soon she had the consciousness that she was not alone, and looking +up, saw Arden in the door, with a grave troubled face. Hastily turning +from him, and wiping away her tears, she said rather coldly: + +"You should have knocked. The house is my home, if it is empty." + +His face changed instantly to its usual hard sullen aspect, and he +said briefly: + +"I did knock." + +"The landlady has told her all about us," he thought, "and she rejects +sympathy and fellowship from such as we are." + +But Edith's feeling had only been annoyance that a stranger had seen +her emotion, so she said quickly, "I beg your pardon. We have had +trouble, but I don't give way in this manner often. Have you brought a +load?" + +"Yes. If your servant will help me I will bring the things in." + +As he and Hannibal carried in heavy rolls of carpet and other +articles, Edith removed as far as possible the traces of her grief, +and soon began to scan by the light of day with some curiosity her +acquaintance of the previous evening. He was the very opposite to +herself in appearance. Her eyes were large and dark. He had a rather +small but piercing blue eye. His locks were light and curly, and his +beard sandy. Her hair was brown and straight. He was fully six feet +tall, while she was only of medium height. And yet Edith was not a +brunette, but possessed a complexion of transparent delicacy which +gave her the fragile appearance characteristic of so many American +girls. His face was much tamed by exposure to March winds, but his +brow was as white as hers. In his morbid tendency to shun every one, +he usually kept his eyes fixed on the ground so as to appear not to +see people, and this, with his habitual frown, gave a rather heavy and +repelling expression to his face. + +"He would make a very good representative of the laboring classes," +she thought, "if he hadn't so disagreeable an expression." + +It had only dimly dawned upon poor Edith as yet that she now belonged +to the "laboring classes." + +But her energetic nature soon reacted against idle grieving, and her +pale cheeks grew rosy, and her face full of eager life as she assisted +and directed. + +"If I only had one or two women to help me we could soon get things +settled," she said, "and I have so little time before the rest come." + +Then she added suddenly to Arden, "Haven't you sisters?" + +"My sister does not go out to service," said Arden proudly. + +"Neither do I," said the shrewd Edith, "but I would be willing to help +any one in such an emergency as I am in," and she glanced keenly to +see the effect of this speech, while she thought, "What airs these +people put on!" + +Arden's face changed instantly. Her words seemed like a ray of +sunlight falling on a place before shadowed, for the sullen frowning +expression passed into one almost of gentleness, as he said: + +"That puts things in a different light. I am sure Rose and mother both +will be willing to help you as neighbors," and he started for another +load, going around by the way of his home and readily obtaining from +his mother and sister a promise to assist Edith after dinner. + +Edith smiled to herself and said, "I have found the key to his surly +nature already." She had, and to many other natures also. Kindness and +human fellowship will unbar and unbolt where all other forces may +clamor in vain. + +Arden went away in a maze of new sensations. This one woman of all the +world beside his mother and sister that he had come to know somewhat +was to him a strange, beautiful mystery. Edith was in many respects +conventional, as all society girls are, but it was the conventionality +of a sphere of life that Arden knew only through books, and she seemed +to him utterly different from the ladies of Pushton as he understood +them from his slight acquaintance. This difference was all in her +favor, for he cherished a bitter and unreasonable prejudice against +the young girls of his neighborhood as vain, shallow creatures who +never read, and thought of nothing save dress and beaux. His own +sister in fact had helped to confirm these impressions, for while he +was fond of her and kind, he had no great admiration for her, saying +in his sweeping cynicism, "She is like the rest of them." If he had +met Edith only in the street and in conventional ways, stylishly +dressed, he would scarcely have noticed her. But her half-indignant, +half-pathetic appeal to him on the dock, the lonely ride in which she +had clung to his arm for safety, her tears, and the manner in which +she had last spoken to him, had all combined to pierce thoroughly his +shell of sullen reserve; and, as we have said, his vivid imagination +had taken fire. + +Edith and Hannibal worked hard the rest of the forenoon, and her +experienced old attendant was invaluable. Edith herself, though having +little practical knowledge of work of any kind, had vigor and natural +judgment, and her small white hands accomplished more than one would +suppose. + +So Arden wonderingly thought on his return with a second load, as he +saw her lift and handle things that he knew to be heavy. Her short, +close-fitting working-dress outlined her fine figure to advantage, and +with complexion bright and dazzling with exercise, she seemed to him +some frail fairylike creature doomed by a cruel fate to unsuited toil +and sorrows. But Edith was very matter-of-fact, and had never in all +her life thought of herself as a fairy. + +Arden went home to dinner, and by one o'clock Edith said to Hannibal: + +"There is one good thing about the place if no other. It gives one a +savage appetite. What have you got in the basket?" + +"A scrumptious lunch, Miss Edie. I told de landlady you'se used to +havin' things mighty nice, and den I found a hen's nest in de barn dis +mornin'." + +"I hope you didn't take the eggs, Hannibal," said Edith slyly. + +"Sartin I did, Miss Edie, cause if I didn't de rats would." + +"Perhaps the landlady would also if you had shown them to her." + +"Miss Edie," said Hannibal solemnly, "findin' a hen's nest is like +findin' a gold mine. It belongs to de one dat finds it." + +"I am afraid that wouldn't stand in law. Suppose we were arrested for +robbing hens' nests. That wouldn't be a good introduction to our new +neighbors." + +"Now, Miss Edie," said Hannibal, with an injured air, "you don't spec +I do a job like dat so bungly as to get cotched at it?" + +"Oh, very well," said Edith, laughing, "since you have conformed to +the morality of the age, it must be all right, and a fresh egg would +be a rich treat now that it can be eaten with a clear conscience. But, +Hannibal, I wish you would find a gold mine out in the garden." + +"I guess you'se find dat with all your readin' about strawberries and +other yarbs." + +"I hope so," said Edith with a sigh, "for I don't see how we are going +to live here year after year." + +"You'se be rich again. De men wid de long pusses ain't agoin' to look +at your black eyes for nothin'," and Hannibal chuckled knowingly. + +The color faintly deepened in Edith's cheeks, but she said with some +scorn, "Men with long purses want girls with the same. But who are +these?" + +Coming up the path they saw a tall middle-aged woman, and by her side +a young girl of about eighteen who was a marked contrast to her in +appearance. + +"Dey's his moder and sister. You will drive tings dis arternoon." + +Mrs. Lacey and her daughter entered with some little hesitancy and +embarrassment, but Edith, with the poise of an accomplished lady, at +once put them at ease by saying: + +"It is exceedingly kind of you to come and help, and I appreciate it +very much." + +"No one should refuse to be neighborly," said Mrs. Lacey quietly. + +"And to tell the truth I was delighted to come," said Rose, "the +winter has been so long and dull." + +"Oh, dear!" thought Edith, "if you find them so, what will be our +fate?" + +Mrs. Lacey undid a bundle and took out a teapot from which the steam +yet oozed faintly, and Rose undid another containing some warm +buttered biscuits, Mrs. Lacey saying, "I thought your lunch might seem +a little cold and cheerless, so I brought these along." + +"Now that _is_ kind," said Edith, so cordially that their faces +flushed with that natural pleasure which we all feel when our little +efforts for others are appreciated. To them it was intensified, for +Edith was a grand city lady, and the inroads that she made on the +biscuits, and the zest with which she sipped her tea, showed that her +words had the ring of truth. + +"Do sit down and eat, while things are nice and warm," she said to +Hannibal. "There's no use in our putting on airs now," but Hannibal +insisted on waiting upon her as when he was butler in the great +dining-room on the avenue, and when she was through, carried the +things off to the empty kitchen, and took his "bite" on a packing box, +prefacing it as his nearest approach to grace by an indignant grunt +and profession of his faith. + +"Dis ole niggah eat before her? Not much! She's quality now as much as +eber." + +But the world and Hannibal were at variance on account of a sum of +subtraction which had taken away from Edith's name the dollar symbol. + +Edith set to work, her helpers now increased to three, with renewed +zest, and from time to time stole glances at the mother and daughter +to see what the natives were like. + +They were very different in appearance: the mother looking prematurely +old, and she also seemed bent and stooping under the heavy burdens of +life. Her dark blue eyes had a weary, pathetic look, as if some sorrow +was ever before them. Her cheek bones were prominent and her cheeks +sunken, and the thin hair, brushed plainly under her cap, was streaked +with gray. Her quietness and reserve seemed rather the result of a +crushed, sad heart than of natural lack of feeling. + +The daughter was in the freshest bloom of youth, and was not unlike +the flower she was named after, when, as a dewy bud, it begins to +develop under the morning sun. Though not a beautiful girl, there was +a prettiness, a rural breeziness about her, that would cause any one +to look twice as she passed. The wind ever seemed to be in her light +flaxen curls, and her full rounded figure suggested superabundant +vitality, an impression increased by her quick, restless motions. Her +complexion reminded you of strawberries and cream, and her blue eyes +had a slightly bold and defiant expression. She felt the blight of her +father's course also, but it acted differently on her temperament. +Instead of timidly shrinking from the world like her mother, or +sullenly ignoring it like her brother, she was for going into society +and compelling it to recognize and respect her. + +"I have done nothing wrong," she said; "I insist on people treating me +in view of what I am myself," and in the sanguine spirit of youth she +hoped to carry her point. Therefore her manner was a little self-asserting, which would not have been the case had she not felt that +she had prejudice to overcome. Unlike her brother, she cared little +for books, and had no ideal world, but lived vividly in her immediate +surroundings. The older she grew, the duller and more monotonous did +her home life seem. She had little sympathy from her brother; her +mother was a sad, silent woman, and her father a daily source of +trouble and shame. Her education was very imperfect, and she had no +resource in this, while her daily work seemed a tiresome round that +brought little return. Her mother attended to the more important +duties and gave to her the lighter tasks, which left her a good deal +of leisure. She had no work that stimulated her, no training that made +her thorough in any department of labor, however humble. From a +friend, a dressmaker in the village, she obtained a little fancy work +and sewing, and the proceeds resulting, and all her brother gave her, +she spent in dress. The sums were small enough in all truth, and yet +with the marvellous ingenuity that some girls, fond of dress, acquire, +she made a very little go a great way, and she would often appear in +toilets that were quite effective. With those of her own age and sex +in her narrow little circle, she was not a special favorite, but she +was with the young men, for she was bright, chatty, and had the knack +of putting awkward fellows at ease. She kept her little parlor as +pretty and inviting as her limited materials permitted, and with a +growing imperiousness gave the rest of the family, and especially her +father, to understand that this parlor was her domain, and that she +would permit no intrusion. Clerks from the village and farmers' sons +would occasionally drop in of an evening, though they preferred taking +her out to ride where they could see her away from her home. But the +more respectable young men, with anxious mothers and sisters, were +rather shy of poor Rose, and none seemed to care to go beyond a mild +flirtation with a girl whose father was "on the rampage," as they +expressed it, most of the time. On one occasion, when she had two +young friends spending the evening, her father came home reckless and +wild with drink, and his language toward the young men was so +shocking, and his manner in general so outrageous, that they were glad +to get away. If Arden had not come home and collared his father, +carrying him off to his room by his almost irresistible strength, +Rose's parlor might have become a sad wreck, literally as well as +socially. As it was, it seemed deserted for a long time, and she felt +very bitter about it. In her fearless frankness, her determination not +to succumb to her sinister surroundings (and perhaps from the lack of +a sensitive delicacy), she reproached the same young men when she met +them for staying away, saying, "It's a shame to treat a girl as if she +were to blame for what she can't help." + +But Rose's ambition had put on a phase against which circumstances +were too strong, and she was made to feel in her struggle to gain a +social footing that her father's leprosy had tainted her, and her +brother's "ugly, sullen disposition," as it was termed, was a +hindrance also. She had an increasing desire to get away among +strangers, where she could make her own way on her own merits, and the +city of New York seemed to her a great Eldorado, where she might find +her true career. Some very showily dressed, knowing-looking girls, +that she had met at a picnic, had increased this longing for the city. +Her mother and brother thought her restless, vain, and giddy, but she +was as good and honest a girl at heart as breathed, only her vigorous +nature chafed at repression, wanted outlets, and could not settle down +for life to cook, wash, and sew for a drunken father, a taciturn +brother, or even a mother whose companionship was depressing, much as +she was loved. + +Rose welcomed the request of her brother, as helping Edith would cause +a ripple in the current of her dull life, and give her a chance of +seeing one of the grand city ladies, without the dimness and vagueness +of distance, and she scanned Edith with a stronger curiosity than was +bestowed upon herself. The result was rather depressing to poor Rose, +for, having studied with her quick nice eye Edith's exquisite manner +and movements, she sighed to herself: + +"I'm not such a lady as this girl, and perhaps never can be." + +While Edith was very kind and cordial to the Laceys, she felt, and +made them feel, that there was a vast social distance between them. +Even practical Edith had not yet realized her poverty, and it would +take her some time to doff the manner of the condescending lady. + +They accomplished a great deal that afternoon, but it takes much time +and labor to make even a small empty house look home-like. Edith had +taken the smallest room upstairs, and by evening it was quite in order +for her occupation, she meaning to take Zell in with her. Work had +progressed in the largest upper room, which she designed for her +mother and Laura. Mrs. Lacey and Hannibal were in the kitchen getting +that arranged, they very rightly concluding that this was the +mainspring in the mechanism of material living, and should be put in +readiness at once. Arden had been instructed to purchase and bring +from the village a cooking-stove, and Hannibal's face shone with +something like delight, as by five o'clock he had a wood fire +crackling underneath a pot of water, feeling that the terra firma of +comfort was at last reached. He could now _soak_ in his favorite +beverage of tea, and make Miss Edie quite "pertlike" too when she was +tired. + +Mrs. Lacey worked silently. Rose was inclined to be chatty and draw +Edith out in regard to city life. She responded good-naturedly as long +as Rose confined herself to generalities, but was inclined to be +reticent on their own affairs. + +Before dark the Laceys prepared to return, the mother saying gravely: + +"You may feel it too lonely to stay by yourself. Our house is not very +inviting, and my husband's manner is not always what I could wish, but +such as it is, you will be welcome in it till the rest of your family +comes." + +"You are very kind to a stranger," said Edith, heartily, "but I am not +a bit afraid to stay here since I have Hannibal as protector," and +Hannibal, elated by this compliment, looked as if he might be a very +dragon to all intruders. "Moreover," continued Edith, "you have helped +me so _splendidly_ that I shall be very comfortable, and they will be +here to-morrow night." + +Mrs. Lacey bowed silently, but Rose said in her sprightly voice, from +the doorway: + +"I'll come and help you all day to-morrow." + +Arden was still to bring one more load. The setting sun, with the +consistency of an April day, had passed into a dark cloud which soon +came driving on with wind and rain, and the thick drops dashed against +the windows as if thrown from a vast syringe, while the gutter gurgled +and groaned with the sudden rush of water. + +"Oh, dear! how dismal!" sighed Edith, looking out in the gathering +darkness. Then she saw that the loaded wagon had just stopped at the +gate, and in dim outline Arden sat in the storm as if he had been a +post. "It's too bad," she said impatiently, "my things will all get +wet." After a moment she added: "Why don't he come in? Don't he know +enough to come in out of the rain?" + +"Well, Miss Edie, he's kind o' quar," said Hannibal, "I'se jes done +satisfied he's quar." + +But the shower ceased suddenly, and Arden dismounted, secured his +horses, and soon appeared at the door with a piece of furniture. + +"Why, it's not wet," said Edith with surprise. + +"I saw appearances of rain, and so borrowed a piece of canvas at the +dock." + +"But you didn't put the canvas over yourself," said Edith, looking at +his dripping form, grateful enough now to bestow a little kindness +without the idea of policy. "As soon as you have brought in the load I +insist on your staying and taking a cup of tea." + +He gave his shoulders an indifferent shrug, saying, "A little cold +water is the least of my troubles." Then he added, stealing a timid +glance at her, "But you are very kind. People seldom think of their +teamsters." + +"The more shame to them then," said Edith. "I at least can feel a +kindness if I can't make much return. It was very good of you to +protect my furniture, and I appreciate your care. Besides your mother +and sister have been helping me all the afternoon, and I am oppressed +by my obligations to you all." + +"I am sorry you feel that way," he said briefly, and vanished in the +darkness after another load. + +Soon all was safely housed, and he said, about to depart, "There is +one more load; I will bring that to-morrow." + +From the kitchen she called, "Stay, your tea will be ready in a +moment." + +"Do not put yourself to that truble," he answered, at the same time +longing to stay. "Mother will have supper ready for me." He was so +diffident that he needed much encouragement, and moreover he was +morbidly sensitive. + +But as she turned she caught his wistful glance, and thought to +herself, "Poor fellow! he's cold and hungry." With feminine shrewdness +she said, "Now, Mr. Lacey, I shall feel slighted if you don't take a +cup of my tea, for see, I have made it myself. It's the one thing +about housekeeping that I understand. Your mother brought me a nice +cup at noon, and I enjoyed it very much. I am going to pay that debt +now to you." + +"Well--if you really wish it"--said Arden hesitatingly, with another +of his bright looks, and color even deeper than the ruddy firelight +warranted. + +"My conscience!" thought Edith, "how suddenly his face changes. He is +'quar,' as Hannibal says." But she settled matters by saying, "I shall +feel hurt if you don't. You must let there be at least some show of +kindness on my part, as well as on yours and your friends'." + +There came in again a delicate touch of that human fellowship which he +had never found in the world, and had seemingly repelled, but which +his soul was thirsting for with an intensity never so realized before, +and this faintest semblance of human companionship and sympathy seemed +inexpressibly sweet to his sore and lonely heart. + +He took the cup from her as if it had been a sacrament, and was about +to drink it standing, but she placed a chair at the table and said: + +"No, sir, you must sit down there in comfort by the fire." + +He did so as if in a dream. The whole scene was taking a powerful hold +on his imagination. + +"Hannibal," she cried, raising her voice in a soft, bird-like call, +and from the dim kitchen whence certain spluttering sounds had +preceded him, Hannibal appeared with a heaping plate of buttered +toast. + +"With your permission," she said, "I will sit down and take a cup of +tea with you, in a neighborly way, for I wish to ask you some more +questions, and tea, you know, is a great incentive to talk," and she +took a chair on the opposite side of the table, while Hannibal stood a +little in the background to wait on them with all the formality of the +olden time. + +The wood fire blazed and crackled, and threw its flickering light over +Edith's fair face, and intensified her beauty, as her features gleamed +out, or faded, as the flames rose and fell. Hannibal stood motionless +behind her chair as if he might have been an Ethiopian slave attendant +on a young sultana. To Arden's aroused imagination, it seemed like one +of the scenes of his fancy, and he was almost afraid to move or speak, +lest all should vanish, and he find himself plodding along the dark +muddy road. + +"What is the matter?" she asked curiously. "Why don't you drink your +tea?" + +"It all seems as strange and beautiful as a fairy tale," he said, +looking at her earnestly. + +Her hearty laugh and matter-of-fact tone dispelled his illusion, as +she said: + +"It's all dreadfully real to me. I feel as if I had done more work to-day than in all my life before, and we have only made a beginning. I +want to ask you about the place and the garden, and how to get things +done," and she plied him well with the most practical questions. + +Sometimes he answered a little incoherently, for through them all he +saw a face full of strange weird beauty, as the firelight flickered +upon it, and gave a star-like lustre to the large dark eyes. + +Hannibal, in the background, grinned and chuckled silently, as he saw +Arden's dazed, wondering admiration, saying to himself, "Dey ain't +used to such young ladies as mine, up here--it kind o' dazzles 'em." + +At last, as if breaking away from the influence of a spell, Arden +suddenly rose, turning upon Edith one of those warm, bright looks that +he sometimes gave his mother, and said, "You have been very kind; +good-night," and was gone in a moment. But the night was luminous +about him. Along the muddy road, in the old barn as he cared for his +horses, in his poor little room at home, to which he soon retired, he +saw only the fair face of Edith, with the firelight playing upon it, +with the vividness of one looking directly upon an exquisite cabinet +picture, and before that picture his heart was inclined to bow, in the +most devoted homage. + +Edith's only comment was, "He is 'quar,' Hannibal, as you said." + +Wearied with the long day's work, she soon found welcome and dreamless +rest. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MRS. ALLEN'S POLICY + + + +True to her promise, Rose helped Edith all the next day, and while she +worked, the frank-hearted girl poured out the story of her troubles, +and Edith came to have a greater respect and sympathy for her "kind +and humble neighbors" as she characterized them in her own mind. Still +with her familiarity with the farming class, kept up since her summer +in the country as a child, she made a broad distinction between them +and the mere laborer. Moreover, the practical girl wished to +conciliate the Laceys and every one else she could, for she had a +presentiment that there were many trials before them, and that they +would need friends. She said in answer to Rose: + +"I never realized before that the world was so full of trouble. We +have seen plenty of late." + +"One can bear any kind of trouble better than a daily shame," said +Rose bitterly. + +For some unexplained reason Edith thought of Zell and Mr. Van Dam with +a sudden pang. + +Arden brought his last load and watched eagerly for her appearance, +fearing that there might be some great falling off in the vision of +the past evening. + +But to his eyes the girl he was learning to glorify presented as fair +an exterior in the garish day, and the reality of her beauty became a +fixed fact in his consciousness, and his fancy had already begun to +endow her with angelic qualities. With all her vanity, even sorrowful +Edith would have laughed heartily at his ideal of her. It was one of +the hardest ordeals of his life to take the money she paid him, and +she saw and wondered at his repugnance. + +"You will never get rich," she said, "if you are so prodigal in work, +and so spare in your charges." + +"I would rather not take anything," he said dubiously, holding the +money, as if it were a coal of fire, between his thumb and finger. + +"Then I must find some one who will do business on business +principles," she said coldly. "If the fellow has any sentimental +nonsense about him, I'll soon cure that," she thought. + +Arden colored, thrust his money carelessly into his pocket as if it +were of no account, and said briefly, "Good-morning." + +But when alone he put the money in the innermost part of his +pocketbook, and when his father asked him for some of it, he sternly +answered: + +"No, sir, not a cent." Nor did he spend it himself; why he kept it +could scarcely have been explained. He was simply acting according to +the impulses of a morbid romantic nature that had been suddenly and +deeply impressed. The mother's quick eye detected a change in him and +she asked: + +"What do you think of our new neighbor?" + +"Mother," said he fervently, "she is an angel." + +"My poor boy," said she anxiously, "take care. Don't let your fancy +run away with you." + +"Oh," said he with assumed indifference, "one can have a decided +opinion of a good thing as well as a bad thing, without making a fool +of one's self." + +But the mother saw with a half-jealous pang that her son's heart was +awaking to a new and stronger love than her own. + +Mrs. Allen with Zell and Laura was to come by the boat that evening, +and Edith's heart yearned after them as her kindred. Now that she had +had a little experience of loneliness and isolation, she deeply +regretted her former harshness and impatience, saying to herself, "It +is harder for them than for me. They don't like the country, and don't +care anything about a garden," and she purposed to be very gentle and +long-suffering. + +If good resolutions were only accomplished certainties as soon as +made, how different life would be! + +Arden had ordered a close carriage that she might go down and meet +them, and had agreed to bring up their trunks and boxes in his large +wagon. + +The boat fortunately landed under the clear starlight on this +occasion, and feeble Mrs. Allen was soon seated comfortably in the +carriage. But her every breath was a sigh, and she regarded the +martyrs as a favored class in comparison with herself. Laura still had +her look of dreary apathy; but Zell's face wore an expression of +interest in the new scenes and experiences, and she plied Edith with +many questions as she rode homeward. Mrs. Allen brought a servant up +with her who was condemned to ride with Arden, much to their mutual +disgust. + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Edith as they rode along. "It's a dreadful come-down for us all and I don't know how you are going to stand it, +mother." + +Mrs. Allen's answer was a long inarticulate sigh. + +When she reached the house and entered the room where supper was +awaiting them, she glanced around as a prisoner might on being thrust +into a cell in which years must be spent, and then she dropped into a +chair, sobbing-- + +"How different--how different from all my past!" and for a few moments +they all cried together. As with Edith at first, so now again the new +home was baptized with tears as if dedicated to sorrow and trouble. + +Edith then led them upstairs to take off their things, and Mrs. Allen +had a fresh outburst of sorrow as she recognized the contrast between +this bare little chamber and her luxurious sleeping-apartment and +dressing-room in the city. Laura soon regained her air of weary +indifference, but Zell, hastily throwing off her wraps, came down to +explore, and to question Hannibal. + +"Bress you, chile, it does my eyes good to see you all, ony you'se +musn't take on as if we'se all dyin' with slow 'sumption." + +Zell put her hand on the black's shoulder and looked up into his face +with a wonderfully gentle and grateful expression, saying: + +"You are as good as gold Hannibal. I am so glad you stayed with us, +for you seem like one of the best bits of our old home. Never mind, +I'll have a grander house again soon, and you shall have a stiffer +necktie and higher collar than ever." + +"Bress you," said Hannibal with moist eyes, "it does my ole black +heart good to hear you. But, Miss Zell, I say," he added in a loud +whisper, "when is it gwine to be?" + +"Oh!" said poor Zell, asked for definiteness, "some day," and she +passed into the large room where Arden was just setting down a trunk. + +"Don't leave it there in the middle of the floor," she said sharply. +"Take it upstairs." + +Arden suddenly straightened himself as if he had received a slight cut +from a whip, and turned his sullen face full on Zell, and it seemed +very repulsive to the imperious little lady. + +"Don't you hear me?" she asked sharply. + +"Perhaps it would be well for you not to ask favors of your neighbors +in that tone," he replied curtly. + +Edith, coming down, saw the situation and said with oil in her voice, +"You must excuse my sister, Mr. Lacey. She does not know who you are. +Hannibal will assist with the trunks if you will be so kind as to take +them upstairs." + +"She is different from the rest," thought Arden, readily complying +with her request. + +But Zell said as she turned away, loud enough for him to hear, "What +airs these common country people do put on!" Zell might have loaded +Arden's wagon with gold, and he would not have lifted a finger for her +after that. If he had known that Edith's kindness had been half +policy, his face would have been more sullen and forbidding than ever. +But she dwelt glorified and apart in his consciousness, and if she +could only maintain that ideal supremacy, he would be her slave. But +in his morbid sensitiveness she would have to be very careful. The +practical girl at this time did not dream of his fanciful imagining +about her, but she was bent on securing friends and helpers, however +humble might be their station, and she had shrewdly and quickly +learned how to manage Arden. + +The next day was spent by the family in getting settled in their +narrow quarters, and a dreary time they had of it. It was a long rainy +day, the roof leaked badly, and every element of discomfort seemed let +loose upon them. + +Mrs. Allen had a nervous headache, and one of her worst touches of +dyspepsia, and Zell and Laura were so weary and out of sorts that +little could be accomplished. Between the tears and sighs within, and +the dripping rain without, Edith looked back on the first two days, +when the Laceys were helping her, as bright in contrast. But Mrs. +Allen was already worrying over the Laceys' connection with their +settlement in the neighborhood. + +"We shall be associated with these low people," said she to Edith +querulously. "Your first acquaintances in a new place are of great +importance." + +Edith was not ready any such association, and she felt that there was +force in her mother's words. She had thought of the Laceys chiefly in +the light of their usefulness. + +She was glad when the long miserable day came to a close, and she +welcomed the bright sunshine of the following morning, hoping it would +dispel some of the gloom that seemed gathering round them more thickly +than ever. + +After partaking of a rather meagre breakfast, for Hannibal's materials +were running low, Edith pushed back her chair, and said: + +"I move we hold a council of war, and look the situation in the face. +We are here, and we've got to live here. Now what shall we do? I +suppose we must go to work at something that will bring in money." + +"Go to work, and for money!" said Mrs. Allen sharply from her +cushioned arm-chair. "I hope we haven't ceased to be ladies." + +"But, mother, we can't live forever on the title. The 'butchers, +bakers, and candlestick-makers' won't supply us long on that ground. +What did the lawyer, who settled father's estate, say before you +left?" + +"Well," replied Mrs. Allen vaguely, "he said he had placed to our +credit in--Bank, what there was left, and he gave me a check-book and +talked economy as men always do. Your poor father, after losing +hundreds at the club, would talk economy the next morning, in the most +edifying way. He also said that there was some of that hateful stock +remaining that ruined your father, but that it was of uncertain value, +and he could not tell how much it would realize, but he would sell it +and place the proceeds also to our credit. It will amount to +considerable, I think, and it may rise. + +"Now, girls," continued Mrs. Allen, settling herself back among the +cushions, and resting the forefinger of her right hand impressively on +the palm of the left, "this is the proper line of policy for us to +pursue. I hope in all these strange changes I am still mistress of my +own family. You certainly don't think that I expect to stay in this +miserable hovel all my life. If you two girls, Laura and Edith, had +made the matches you might, we should still be living on the avenue. +But I certainly cannot permit you now to spoil every chance of getting +out of this slough. You may not be able to do as well as you could +have done, but if you are once called working-girls, what can you do? + +"In the first place we must go into the best society of this town. Our +position warrants it of course. Therefore, for heaven's sake don't let +it get abroad that we are associating with these drunken Laceys."(Mrs. +Allen in her rapid generalization gave the impression that the entire +family were habitually "on the rampage," and Edith remembered with +misgivings that she had drunk tea with Arden Lacey on that very spot.) +"Moreover," continued Mrs. Allen, "there is a large summer hotel near +here, and 'my friends' have promised to come and see me this summer. +"We must try to present an air of pretty, rural elegance, and your +young gentleman friends from the city will soon be dropping in. Then +Gus Elliot and Mr. Van Dam continue very kind and cordial, I am sure. +Zell, though so young, may soon become engaged to Mr. Van Dam, and +it's said he is very rich--" + +"I can't get up much faith in these two men," interrupted Edith, "and +as for Gus, he can't support himself." + +"I hope you don't put Gus Elliot and my friend on the same level," +said Zell indignantly. + +"I don't know where to put 'your friend,'" said Edith curtly. "Why +doesn't he speak out? Why doesn't he do something open, manly, and +decided? It seems as if he can see nothing and think of nothing but +your pretty face. If he would become engaged to you and frankly take +the place of lover and brother, he might be of the greatest help to +us. But what has he done since father's death but pet and flatter you +like an infatuated old--" + +"Hush!" cried Zell, blazing with anger and starting up; "no one shall +speak so of him. What more has Gus Elliot done?" + +"He has been useful as my errand boy," said Edith contemptuously, "and +that's all he amounts to as far as I'm concerned. I am disgusted with +men. Who in all our trouble has been noble and knightly toward us?--" + +"Be still, children; stop your quarrelling," broke in Mrs. Allen. "You +have got to take the world as you find it. Men of our day don't act +like knights any more than they dress like them. The point I wish you +to understand is that we must keep every hold we have on our old life +and society. Next winter some of my friends will invite you to visit +them in the city and then who knows what may happen?"--and she nodded +significantly. Then she added, with a regretful sigh, "What chances +you girls have had! There's Cheatem, Argent, Livingston, Pamby, and +last and best, Goulden, who might have been secured if Laura had been +more prompt, and a host of others. Edith had better have taken Mr. +Fox, even, than have had all this happen." + +An expression of disgust came out on Edith's face, and she said, "It +seems to me that I would rather go to work than take any of them." + +"You don't know anything about work," said Mrs. Allen. "It's a great +deal easier to marry a fortune than to make one, and a woman can't +make a fortune. Marrying well is the only chance you girls have now, +and it's my only chance to live again as a lady ought, and I want to +see to it that nothing is done to spoil these chances." + +Laura listened with a dull assent, conscious that she would marry any +man _now_ who would give her an establishment and enable her to sweep +past Mr. Goulden in elegant scorn. Zell listened, purposing to marry +Mr. Van Dam, though Edith's words raised a vague uneasiness in her +mind, and she longed to see him again, meaning to make him more +explicit. Edith listened with a cooling adherence to this familiar +faith and doctrine of the world in which the mother had brought up her +children. She had a glimmering perception that the course indicated +was not sound in general, or best for them in particular. + +"And now," continued Mrs. Allen, becoming more definite, "we must have +a new roof put on the house right away, or we shall all be drowned +out, and the house must be painted, a door-bell put in, and fences and +things generally put in order. We must fit this room up as a parlor, +and we can use the little room there as a dining and sitting-room. +Laura and I will take the chamber over the kitchen, and the one over +this can be kept as a spare room, so that if any of our city friends +come out to see us, they can stay all night." + +"Oh, mother, the proposed arrangements will make us all uncomfortable, +you especially," remonstrated Edith. + +"No matter, I've set my heart on our getting back to the old life, and +we must not stop at trifles." + +"But are you sure we have money to spare for all these improvements?" +continued Edith anxiously. + +"Oh, yes, I think so," said Mrs. Allen indefinitely. "And as your poor +father used to say, to spend money is often the best way to get +money." + +"Well, mother," said Edith dubiously, "I suppose you know best, but it +doesn't look very clear to me. There seems nothing definite or certain +that we can depend on." + +"Perhaps not to-day, but leave all to me. Some one will turn up, who +will fill your eye and fill your hand, and what more could you ask in +a husband? But you must not be too fastidious. These difficult girls +are sure to take up with 'crooked sticks' at last." (Mrs. Allen's +views as to straight ones were not original.) "Leave all to me. I will +tell you when the right ones turn up." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WAITING FOR SOME ONE TO TURN UP + + + +And so the girls were condemned to idleness and ennui, and they all +came to suffer from these as from a dull toothache, especially Laura +and Zell. Edith had great hopes from her garden, and saw the snow +finally disappear and the mud dry up, as the imprisoned inmates of the +ark might have watched the abatement of the waters. + +On the afternoon of the council wherein Mrs. Allen had marked out the +family policy, Edith and Zell walked to the village, and going to one +of the leading stores, made arrangements with the proprietor to have +his wagon stop daily at their house for orders. They also asked him to +send them a carpenter. They made these requests with the manner of +olden time, when money seemed to flow from a full fountain, and the +man was very polite, thinking he had gained profitable customers. + +While they were absent, Rose stepped in to see if she could be of any +further help. Mrs. Allen surmised who she was and resolved to snub her +effectually. To Rose's question as to their need of assistance, she +replied frigidly, that they had two servants now, and did not wish to +employ any more help. + +Rose colored, bit her lip, then said with an open smile: + +"You are under mistake. I am Miss Lacey, and helped your daughter the +first two days after she came." + +"Oh! ah! Miss Lacey. I beg your pardon," said Mrs. Allen, still more +distantly. "My daughter Edith is out. Did she not pay you?" + +Rose's face became scarlet, and rising hastily she said, "Either I +misunderstand, or am greatly misunderstood. Good-afternoon." + +Mrs. Allen slightly inclined her head, while Laura took no notice of +her at all. When she was gone, Mrs. Allen said complacently, "I think +we will see no more of that bold-faced fly-away creature. The idea of +her thinking that we would live on terms of social equality with +them!" + +Laura's only reply was a yawn, but at last she got up, put on her hat +and shawl and went out to walk a little on the porch. Arden, who was +returning home with his team, stopped a moment to inquire if there was +anything further that he could do. He hoped the lady he saw on the +porch was Edith, and the wish to see her again led him to think of any +excuse that would take him to the house. + +As Laura turned to come toward him, he surmised that it was another +sister, and was disappointed and embarrassed, but it was too late to +turn back, though she scarcely appeared to heed him. + +"I called to ask Miss Edith if I could do anything more that would be +of help to her," he said diffidently. + +Giving him a cold, careless glance, Laura said, "I believe my sister +wants some work done around the house before long. I will tell her +that you were here looking for employment, and I have no doubt she +will send for you if she needs your services," and Laura turned her +back on him and continued her walk. + +He whirled about on his heel as if she had struck him, and when he got +home his mother noted that his face looked more black and sullen than +she had ever seen it before. Rose was open and strong in her +indignation, saying: + +"Fine neighbors you have introduced us to! Nice return they make for +all our kindness; not that I begrudge it. But I hate to see people get +all out of you they can, and then about the same as slap your face and +show you the door." + +"Did you see Miss Edith?" asked Arden quickly. + +"No, I saw the old lady and a proud pale-faced girl who took no more +notice of me than if I had come for cold victuals." + +"I suppose they have heard," said Arden dejectedly. + +"They have heard nothing against me, nor you, nor mother," said Rose +hotly. "If I ever see that Miss Edith again, I will give her a piece +of my mind." + +"You will please do nothing of the kind," said her brother. "She has +not turned her back on you. Wait till she does. We are the last people +to condemn one for the sake of another." + +"I guess they are all alike; but, as you say, it's fair to give her a +chance," answered Rose quietly. + +With his habit of reticence he said nothing about his own experience. +But it was a cruel shock that those connected with the one who was +becoming the inspiration of his dreams should be so contemptible, as +he regarded them, and as we are all apt to regard those who treat us +with contempt. His faith in her was also shaken, and he resolved that +she must "send for him," feeling her need, before he would go near her +again. But, after all, his ardent fancy began to paint her more gentle +and human on the background of the narrow pride shown by the others. +He longed for some absolute proof that she was what he believed her, +but was too proud to put himself in the way of receiving it. + +When Edith heard how the Lacey acquaintance had been nipped in the +bud, she said with honest shame, "It's too bad, after all their +kindness." + +"It was the only thing to be done," said Mrs. Allen. "It is better for +such people to talk against you than to be claiming you as neighbors, +and all that. It would give us a very bad flavor with the best people +of the town." + +"I only wish then," said Edith, "that I had never let them do anything +for me. I shall hate to meet them again," and she sedulously avoided +them. + +The next day a carpenter appeared after breakfast, and seemed the most +affably suggestive man in the world. "Of course he would carry out +Mrs. Allen's wishes immediately," and he showed her several other +improvements that might be made at the same time, and which would cost +but little more while they were about it. + +"But how much _will_ it cost?" asked Edith directly. + +"Oh, well," said the man vaguely, "it's hard to estimate on this kind +of jobbing work." Then turning to Mrs. Allen, he said with great +deference, "I assure you, madam, I will do it well, and be just as +reasonable as possible." + +"Certainly, certainly," said Mrs. Allen majestically, pleased with the +deference, "I suppose that is all we ought to ask." + +"I think there ought to be something more definite as to price and +time of completing the work," still urged Edith. + +"My dear," said Mrs. Allen with depressing dignity, "pray leave these +matters to me. It is not expected that a young lady like yourself +should understand them." + +Mrs. Allen had become impressed with the idea that if they ever +reached the haven of Fifth Avenue again, she must take the helm and +steer their storm-tossed bark. As we have seen before, she was capable +of no small degree of exertion when the motive was to attain position +and supremacy in the fashionable world. She was great in one direction +only--the one to which she had been educated, and to which she devoted +her energies. + +The man chuckled as he went away. "Lucky I had to deal with the old +fool rather than that sharp black-eyed girl. By Jove! but they are a +handsome lot though; only they look like the houses we build nowadays +--more paint and finish than solid timber." + +The next day there were three or four mechanics at work, and the job +was secured. The day following there were only two, and the next day +none. Edith sent word by the grocer, asking what was the matter. The +following day one man appeared, and on being questioned, said "the +boss was very busy, lots of jobs on hand." + +"Why did he take our work then?" asked Edith indignantly. + +"Oh, as to that, the boss takes every job he can get," said the man +with a grin. + +"Well, tell the boss I want to see him," she replied sharply. + +The man chuckled and went on with his work in a snail-like manner, as +if that were the only job "the boss" had, or was like to have, and he +must make the most of it. + +The house was hers, and Edith felt anxious about it, and indeed it +seemed that they were going to great expense with no certain return in +view. That night one corner of the roof was left open and rain came in +and did not a little damage. + +Loud and bitter were the complaints of the family, but Edith said +little. She was too incensed to talk about it. The next day it +threatened rain and no mechanics appeared. Donning her waterproof and +thick shoes, she was soon in the village, and by inquiry found the +man's shop. He saw her coming and dodged out. + +"Very well, I will wait," said Edith, sitting down on a box. + +The man, finding she would not go away, soon after bustled in, and was +about to be very polite, but Edith interrupted him with a question +that was like a blow between the eyes: + +"What do you mean, sir, by breaking your word?" + +"Great press of work just now, Miss Allen--" + +"That is not the question," interrupted Edith. "You said you would do +our work immediately. You took it with that distinct understanding; +and, because you have been false to your word, we have suffered much +loss. You knew the roof was not all covered. You knew it when it +rained last night, but the rain did not fall on you, so I suppose you +did not care. But is a person who breaks his word in that style a +gentleman? Is he even a man, when he breaks it to a lady, who has no +brother or husband to protect her interests?" + +The man became very red. He was accustomed, as his workman said, to +secure every job he could, then divide and scatter his men so as to +keep everything going, but at a slow, provoking rate, that wore out +every one's patience save his own. He was used to the annual fault-finding and grumbling of the busy season, and bore it as he would a +northeast storm as a disagreeable necessity, and quite prided himself +on the good-natured equanimity with which he could stand his +customers' scoldings; and the latter had become so accustomed to being +put off that they endured it also as they would a northeaster, and +went into improvements and building as they might visit a dentist. + +But when Edith turned her scornful face and large indignant eyes full +upon him, and asked practically what he meant by lying to her, and +said that to treat a woman so proved him less than a man, he saw his +habit of "putting off" in a new light. At first he was a little +inclined to bluster, but Edith interrupted him sharply: + +"I wish to know in a word what you will do. If that roof is not +completed and made tight to-day, I will put the matter in a lawyer's +hands and make you pay damages." + +This would place the man in an unpleasant business aspect, so he said +gruffly: + +"I will send some men right up." + +"And I will take no action till I see whether they come," said Edith +significantly. + +They came, and in a few days the work was finished. But a bill double +the amount they expected came promptly, also. They paid no attention +to it. + +In the meantime Edith had asked the village merchant, who supplied +them with provisions, and who had also become a sort of agent for +them, to send a man to plow the garden. The next day a slouchy old +fellow, with two melancholy shacks of horses that might well tremble +at the caw of a crow, was scratching the garden with a worn-out plow +when she came down to breakfast. He had already made havoc in the +flower borders, and Edith was disgusted with the outward aspect of +himself and team to begin with. But when in her morning slippers she +had picked her way daintily to a point from which she could look into +the shallow furrows, her vexation knew no bounds. She had been reading +about gardening of late, and she had carefully noted how all the +writers insisted on deep plowing and the thorough loosening of the +soil. This man's furrows did not average six inches, and with a +frowning brow, and dress gathered up, she stood perched on a little +stone, like a bird that had just alighted with ruffled plumage, while +Zell was on the porch laughing at her. The man with his gaunt team +soon came round again opposite her, with slow automatic motion as if +the whole thing were one crazy piece of mechanism. The man's head was +down, and he paid no heed to Edith. The rim of his old hat flapped +over his face, the horses jogged on with dropping head and ears, as if +unable to hold them up, and all seemed going down, save the plow. This +light affair skimmed and scratched along the ground like the sharpened +sticks of oriental tillage. + +"Stop!" cried Edith sharply. + +"Whoa!" shouted the man, and he turned toward Edith a pair of watery +eyes, and a face that suggested nothing but snuff. + +"Who sent you here?" asked Edith in the same tone. + +"Mr. Hard, mum." (Mr. Hard was the merchant who was acting as their +agent.) + +"Am I to pay you for this work, or Mr. Hard?" + +"I guess you be, mum." + +"Who's to be suited with this work, you, Mr. Hard, or I?" + +"I hain't thought nothin' about that." + +"Do you mean to say that it makes no difference whether I am suited or +not?" + +"What yer got agin the work?" + +"I want my garden plowed, not scratched. You don't plow half deep +enough, and you are injuring the shrubs and flowers in the borders." + +"I guess I know more about plowin' than you do. Gee up thar!" to the +horses, that seemed inclined to be Edith's allies by not moving. + +"Stop!" she cried, "I will not pay you a cent for this work, and wish +you to leave this garden instantly." + +"Mr. Hard told me to plow this garding and I'm a-goin' to plow it. I +never seed the day's work I didn't git paid for yit, and you'll pay +for this. Git up thar, you cussed old critters," and the man struck +the horses sharply with a lump of dirt. Away went the crazy rattling +old automaton round and round the garden in spite of all she could do. + +She was half beside herself with vexation, which was increased by +Zell's convulsed laughter on the porch, but she stormed at the old +plowman as vainly as a robin might remonstrate with a windmill. + +"Mr. Hard told me to plow it, and I'm a-goin' to plow it," said the +human part of the mechanism as it again passed, without stopping, the +place where Edith stood. + +Utterly baffled, Edith rushed into the house and hastily swallowed a +cup of coffee. She was too angry to eat a mouthful. + +Zell followed with her hand upon her side, which was aching from +laughter, and as soon as she found her voice said: + +"It was one of the most touchingly beautiful rural scenes I ever +looked upon. I never had so close and inspiring a view of one of the +'sons of the soil' before." + +"Yes," snapped Edith, "he is literally a clod." + +"I can readily see," continued Zell, in a mock-sentimental tone, "how +noble and refining a sphere the 'garding' (as your friend, out there, +terms it) must be, even for women. In the first place there are your +associates in. labor--" + +"Stop!" interrupted Edith sharply. "You all leave everything for me to +do, but I won't be teased and tormented in the bargain." + +"But really," continued the incorrigible Zell, "I have been so much +impressed by the first scene in the creation of your Eden, which I +have just witnessed, that I am quite impatient for the second. It may +be that our sole acquaintances in this delightful rural retreat, the +'drunken Laceys,' as mother calls them, will soon insist on becoming +inspired with the spirit of the corn they raise in our arbor." + +Edith sprang up from the table and went to her room. + +"Shame on you, Zell," said Mrs. Allen sharply, but Laura was too +apathetic to scold. + +Impulsive Zell soon relented, and when Edith came down a few moments +later in walking trim, and with eyes swollen with unshed tears, Zell +threw her arms around her neck and said: + +"Forgive your naughty little sister." + +But Edith repulsed her angrily, and started toward the village. + +"I do hate to see people sullenly hoard up things," said Zell +snappishly. Then she dawdled about the house, yawning and saying +fretfully, "I do wish I knew what to do with myself." + +Laura reclined on the sofa with a novel, but Zell was not fond of +reading. Her restless nature craved continual activity and excitement, +but it was part of Mrs. Allen's policy that they should do nothing. + +"Some one may call," she said, "and we must be ready to receive them," +but at that season of the year, when roads were muddy, there was but +little social visiting in the country. + +So, consumed with ennui, Zell listened to the pounding of the +carpenters overhead, and watched the dogged old plowman go round the +small garden till it was all scratched over, and then the whole crazy +mechanism rattled off to parts unknown. The two servants did not leave +her even the recourse of housework, of which she was naturally fond. + +Edith went straight to Mr. Hard, and was so provoked that she scarcely +avoided the puddles in her determined haste. + +Mr. Hard looked out upon his customers with, cold, hard little eyes +that changed their expression only in growing more cold and hard. The +rest of his person seemed all bows, smirks, and smiles, but it was +noticed that these latter diminished and his eyes grew harder as he +wished to remind some lagging patron that his little account needed +settling. This thrifty citizen of Pushton was soon in polite +attendance on Edith, but was rather taken back when she asked sharply +what he meant by sending such a good-for-nothing man to plow her +garden. + +"Well, Miss Allen," he said, his eyes growing harder but his manner +more polite, "old Gideon does such little jobs around, and I thought +he was just the one." + +"Does he plow your garden?" asked Edith abruptly. + +"I keep a gardener," said Mr. Hard with some dignity. + +"I believe it would pay me to do the same," said Edith, "if I could +find one on whom I could depend. The man you sent was very impudent. I +told him the work didn't suit me--that he didn't plow half deep +enough, and that he must leave. But he just kept right on, saying you +sent him, and he would plow it, and he injured my flower borders +besides. Therefore he must look to you for payment." (Mr. Hard's eyes +grew very hard at this.) "Because I am a woman I am not going to be +imposed upon. Now do you know of a man who can really plow my garden? +If not, I must look elsewhere. I had hoped when you took our business +you would have some interest in seeing that we were well served." + +Mr. Hard, with eyes like two flint pebbles, made a low bow and said +with impressive dignity: + +"It is my purpose to do so. There is Mr. Skinner, he does plowing." + +"I don't want Mr. Skinner," said Edith impatiently, "I don't like his +name in reference to plowing." + +"Oh! ah! excellent reason; very good, Miss Allen. Well, there's Mr. +McTrump, a Scotchman, who has a small greenhouse and nursery, he looks +after gardens for some people." + +"I will go and see him," said Edith, taking his address. + +As she plodded off to find his place, she sighed, "Oh, dear! it's +dreadful to have no men in the family. That Arden Lacey might have +helped me so much, if mother was not so particular. I fear we are all +on the wrong track, throwing away substantial and present good for +uncertainties." + +Mr. McTrump was a little man with a heavy sandy beard and such bushy +eyebrows and hair that he reminded Edith of a Scotch terrier. But her +first glance around convinced her that he was a gardener. Neatness, +order, thrift, impressed her the moment she opened his gate, and she +perceived that he was already quite advanced in his spring work. +Smooth seed-sown beds were emerging from winter's chaos. Crocuses and +hyacinths were in bloom, tulips were budding, and on a sunny slope in +the distance she saw long green rows of what seemed some growing crop. +She determined if possible to make this man her ally, or by stratagem +to gain his secret of success. + +The little man stood in the door of his greenhouse with a +transplanting trowel in his hand. He was dressed in clay-colored +nankeen, and could get down in the dirt without seeming to get dirty. +His small eyes twinkled shrewdly, but not unkindly, as she advanced +toward him. He was fond of flowers, and she looked like one herself +that spring morning. + +"I was directed to call upon you," she said, with conciliatory +politeness, "understanding that you sometimes assist people with their +gardens." + +"Weel, noo and then I do, but I canna give mooch time with a' my ain +work." + +"But you would help a lady who has no one else to help her, wouldn't +you?" said Edith sweetly. + +Old Malcom was not to be caught with a sugar-plum, so he said with a +little Scotch caution: + +"I canna vera weel say till I hear mair aboot it." + +Edith told him how she was situated, and in view of her perplexity and +trouble, her voice had a little appealing pathos in it. Malcom's eyes +twinkled more and more kindly, and as he explained afterward to his +wife, "Her face was sae like a pink hyacinth beent doon by the storm +and a wantin' proppin' oop," that by the time she was done he was +ready to accede to her wishes. + +"Weel," said he, "I canna refuse a blithe young leddy like yoursel, +but ye must let me have my ain way." + +Edith was inclined to demur at this, for she had been reading up and +had many plans and theories to carry out. But she concluded to accept +the condition, thinking that with her feminine tact she would have her +own way after all. She did not realize that she was dealing with a +Scotchman. + +"I'll send ye a mon as will plow the garden, and not scratch it, the +morrow, God willin'," for Mr. McTrump was a very pious man, his only +fault being that he would take a drop too much occasionally. + +"May I stay here a while and watch you work, and look at things?" +asked Edith. "I don't want to go back till that hateful old fellow has +done his mischief and is gone." + +"Why not?" said Malcom, "an ye don't tech anything. The woman folk +from the village as come here do pick and pull much awry." + +"I promise you I will be good," said Edith eagerly. + +"That's mair than ony on us can say of oursel," said Malcom, showing +the doctrinal bias of his mind, "but I ken fra' yer bonnie face ye +mean weel." + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump, that is the first compliment I have received in +Pushton," laughed Edith. + +"I'm a thinkin' it'll not be the last. But I hope ye mind the Scripter +where it says, 'We do all fade as a flower,' and ye will not be puffed +oop." + +But Edith, far more intent on horticultural than on scriptural +knowledge, asked quickly: + +"What were you going to set out with that trowel?" + +"A new strawberry-bed. I ha' more plants the spring than I can sell, +sae I thought to put oot a new bed, though I ha' a good mony." + +"I am so glad. I wish to set out a large bed and can get the plants of +you." + +"How mony do ye want?" said Malcom, with a quick eye to business. + +"I shall leave that to you when you see my ground. Now see how I trust +you, Mr. McTrump." + +"An' ye'll not lose by it, though I would na like a' my coostomers to +put me sae strictly on my honesty." + +Edith spent the next hour in looking around the garden and greenhouses +and watching the old man put out his plants. + +"These plants are to be cooltivated after the hill seestem," he said. +"They are to stand one foot apart in the row, and the rows two feet +apart, and not a rooner or weed to grow on or near them, and it would +do your bright eyes good to see the great red berries they'll bear." + +"Shall I raise mine that way?" said Edith. + +"Weel, ye might soom, but the narrow row coolture will be best for ye, +I'm thinkin'." + +"What's that?" + +"Weel, just let the plants run togither and make a thick close row a +foot wide, an' two feet between the rows. That'll be the easiest for +ye, but I'll show ye." + +"I'm so glad I found you out!" said Edith, heartily; "and if you will +let me, I want to come here often and see how you do everything, for +to tell you the truth, between ourselves, we are poor, and may have to +earn our living out of the garden, or some other way, and I would +rather do it out of the garden." + +"Weel, noo, ye're a canny lass to coom and filch all old Malcom's +secrets to set oop opposition to him. But then sin' ye do it sae +openly I'll tell ye all I know. The big wourld ought to be wide enough +for a bonnie lassie like yoursel to ha' a chance in it, and though I'm +a little mon, I would na be sae mean a one as to hinder ye. Mairover +the gardener's craft be a gentle one, and I see na reason why, if a +white lily like yoursel must toil and spin, it should na be oot in +God's sunshine, where the flowers bloom, instead o' pricking the bluid +oot o' yer body, and the hope oot o' yer heart, wi' the needle's +point, as I ha' seen sae mony o' my ain coontry lassies do. Gude-by, +and may the roses in yer cheeks bloom a' the year round." + +Edith felt as if his last words were a blessing, and started with her +heart cheered and hopeful; and yet beyond her garden, with its spring +promise, its summer and autumn possibilities, there was little +inspiring or hopeful in her new home. + +In accordance with their mother's policy, they were waiting for +something to turn up--waiting, in utter uncertainty, and with dubious +prospects, to achieve by marriage the security and competence which +they must not work for, or they would utterly lose caste in the old +social world in which they had lived. + +Be not too hasty in condemning Mrs. Allen, my reader, for you may, at +the same time, condemn yourself. Have you no part in sustaining that +public sentiment which turns the cold shoulder of society toward the +woman who works? Many are growing rich every year, but more are +growing poor. What does the "best society," in the world's estimation, +say to the daughters in these families? + +"Keep your little hands white, my dears, as long as you can, because +as soon as the traces of toil are seen on them you become a working-woman, and our daughters can't associate with you, and our sons can't +think of you, that is for wives. No other than little and white hands +can enter our heaven." + +So multitudes struggle to keep their hands white, though thereby the +risk that their souls will become stained and black increases daily. A +host of fair girls find their way every year to darker stains than +ever labor left, because they know how coldly society will ignore them +the moment they enlist in the army of honest workers. But you, +respectable men and women in your safe pleasant homes, to the extent +that you hold and sustain this false sentiment, to the extent that you +make the paths of labor hard and thorny, and darken them from the +approving smile of the world, you are guilty of these girls' ruin. + +Christian matron, with your husband one of the pillars of church and +state, do you shrink with disgust from that poor creature who comes +flaunting down Broadway? None but the white-handed enter your parlors, +and the men (?) who are hunting such poor girls to perdition will sit +on the sofa with your daughters this evening. Be not too confident. +Your child, or one in whom your blood flows at a little later remove, +may stand just where honor to toil would save, but the practical +dishonoring of it, which you sustain, eventually blot out the light of +earth and heaven. + +Mrs. Allen knew that even if her daughters commenced teaching, which, +with all the thousands spent on their education, they were incapable +of doing, their old sphere on Fifth Avenue would be as unapproachable +as the pearly gates, between which and the lost a "great gulf is +fixed." + +But Mrs. Allen knew also of a very respectable way, having the full +approval of society, by which they might regain their place in the +heaven from which they had fallen. Besides it was such a simple way, +requiring no labor whatever, though a little scheming perhaps, no +amount of brains or culture worth mentioning, no heart or love, and +least of all a noble nature. A woman may sell herself, or if of a waxy +disposition, having little force, may be sold at the altar to a man +who will give wealth and luxury in return. This, society, in full +dress, smiles upon, and civil law and sacred ceremony sanction. + +With the forefinger of her right hand resting impressively on the palm +of her left, Mrs. Allen had indicated this back door into the +paradise, the gates of which were guarded against poor working-women +by the flaming sword of public opinion, turning every way. + +And the girls were waiting yawningly, wearily, as the long unoccupied +days passed. Laura's cheek grew paler than even her delicate style of +beauty demanded. She seemed not only a hot-house plant, but a sickly +one. The light was fading from her eye as well as the color from her +cheek, and all vigor vanishing from her languid soul and body. The +resemblance to her mother grew more striking daily. She was a +melancholy result of that artificial luxurious life by which the whole +nature is so enervated that there seems no stamina left to resist the +first cold blast of adversity. Instead of being like a well-rooted +hardy native of the soil she seemed a tender exotic that would wither +even in the honest sunlight. As a gardener would say, she needed +"hardening off." This would require the bracing of principle and the +development of work. But Mrs. Allen could not lead the way to the +former, and the latter she forbade, so poor Laura grew more sickly and +morbid every day of her weary idle waiting. + +Mrs. Allen's policy bore even more heavily on Zell. We have all +thought something perhaps of the cruelty of imprisoning a vigorous +young person, abounding in animal life and spirits, in a narrow cell, +which forbids all action and stifles hope. It gives the unhappy victim +the sensation of being buried alive. There comes at last to be one +passionate desire to get out and away. Impulsive, restless, excitable +Zell, with every vein filled with hot young blood, was shut out from +what seemed to her the world, and no other world of activity was shown +to her. Her hands were tied by her mother's policy, and she sat moping +and chafing like a chained captive, waiting till Mr. Van Dam should +come and deliver her from as vile durance as was ever suffered in the +moss-grown castles of the old world. The hope of his coming was all +that sustained her. Her sad situation was the result of acting on a +false view of life from beginning to end. Any true parent would have +shuddered at the thought of a daughter marrying such a man as Van Dam, +but Zell was forbidden to do one useful thing, lest it should mar her +chance of union with this resume of all vice and uncleanness; and +though she had heard the many reports of his evil life, her moral +sense was so perverted that he seemed a lion rather than a reptile to +her. It is true, she looked upon him only in the light of her future +husband, but that she did not shrink from any relationship with such a +man shows how false and defective her education had been. + +Edith had employment for mind and hand, therefore she was happier and +safer than either of her sisters. Malcom had her garden thoroughly +plowed, and helped her plant it. He gave her many flower roots and +sold others at very low prices. In the lower part of the garden, where +the ground was rather heavy and moist, he put out a large number of +raspberries; and along a stone fence, where weeds and bushes had been +usurping the ground, he planted two or three varieties of blackcaps. +He also lined another fence with Kittatinny blackberries. There were +already many currants and gooseberries on the place. These he trimmed, +and put in cuttings for new bushes. He pruned the grapevines also +somewhat, but not to any great extent, on account of the lateness of +the season, meaning to get them into shape by summer cutting. The +orchard also was made to look clean and trim, with the dead wood and +interfering branches cut away. Edith watched these operations with the +deepest interest, and when she could, without danger of being observed +from the road, assisted, though in a very dainty, amateur way. But +Malcom did not aim to put in as many hours as possible, but seemed to +do everything with a sleight of hand that made his visits appear too +brief, even though she had to pay for them. As a refuge from long idle +hours, she would often go up to Malcom's little place, and watch him +and his assistant as they deftly dealt with nature in accordance with +her moods, making the most of the soil, sunlight, and rain. Thus +Malcom came to take a great interest in her, and shrewd Edith was not +slow in fostering so useful a friendship. But in spite of all this, +there were many rainy idle days that hung like lead upon her hands, +and upon these especially, it seemed impossible to carry out her +purpose to be gentle and forbearing, and it often occurred that the +dull apathy of the household was changed into positive pain by sharp +words and angry retorts that should never have been spoken. + +About the last Sabbath of April, Mrs. Allen sent for a carriage and +was driven with her daughters to the most fashionable church of +Pushton. Marshalled by the sexton, they rustled in toilets more +suitable for one of the gorgeous temples of Fifth Avenue than for even +the most ambitious of country churches. Mrs. Allen hoped to make a +profound impression on the country people, and by this one dress +parade to secure standing and cordial recognition among the foremost +families. But she overshot the mark. The failure of Mr. Allen was +known. The costly mourning suits and the little house did not accord, +the solid, sensible people were unfavorably impressed, and those of +fashionable and aristocratic tendencies felt that investigation was +needed before the strangers could be admitted within their exclusive +circles. So, though it was not a Methodist church that they attended, +the Allens were put on longer probation by all classes, when if they +had appeared in a simple unassuming manner, rating themselves at their +true worth and position, many would have been inclined to take them by +the hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THEY TURN UP + + + +One morning, a month after the Allens had gone into poverty's exile, +Gus Elliot lounged into Mr. Van Dam's luxurious apartments. There was +everything around him to gratify the eye of sense, that is, such sense +as Gus Elliot had cultivated, though an angel might have hidden his +face. We will not describe these rooms--we had better not. It is +sufficient to say that in their decorations, pictures, bacchanalian +ornaments, and general suggestion, they were a reflex of Mr. Van Dam's +character, in the more refined and aesthetic phase which he presented +to society. Indeed, in the name of art, whose mantle, if at times +rather flimsy, is broader than that of charity, not a few would have +admired the exhibitions of Mr. Van Dam's taste. + +But concerning Gus Elliot, no doubt exists in our mind. The atmosphere +of Mr. Van Dam's room was entirely adapted to his chosen direction of +development. He was a young man of leisure and fashion, and was +therefore what even the fashionable would be horrified at their +daughters ever becoming. This nice distinction between son and +daughter does not result well. It leaves men in the midst of society +unbranded as vile, unmarked so that good women may shrink in disgust +from them. It gives them a chance to prey upon the weak, as Mr. Van +Dam purposed to do, and as he intended to induce Gus Elliot to do, and +as multitudes of exquisitely dressed scoundrels are doing daily. + +If Mr. and Mrs. Allen had done their duty as parents, they would have +kept the wolf (I beg the wolf's pardon) the jackal, Mr. Van Dam, with +his thin disguise of society polish, from entering their fold. Gus +Elliot was one of those mean curs that never lead, and could always be +drawn into any evil that satisfied the one question of his life, "Will +it give me what _I_ want?" + +Gus was such an exquisite that the smell of garlic made him ill, and +the sight of blood made him faint, and the thought of coarse working +hands was an abomination, but in worse than idleness he could see his +old father wearing himself out, he could get "gentlemanly drunk," and +commit any wrong in vogue among the fast young men with whom he +associated. And now Mephistopheles Van Dam easily induces him to seek +to drag down beautiful Edith Allen, the woman he had meant to marry, +to a life compared with which the city gutters are cleanly. + +Van Dam in slippers and silken robe was smoking his meerschaum after a +late breakfast and reading a French novel. + +"What is the matter?" he said, noting Gus's expression of ennui and +discontent. + +"There is not another girl left in the city to be mentioned the same +day with Edith Allen," said Gus, with the pettishness of a child from +whom something had been taken. + +"Well, spooney, what are you going to do about it?" asked Mr. Van Dam +coolly. + +"What is there to do about it? You know well enough that I can't +afford to marry her. I suppose it's the best thing for me that she has +gone off to the backwoods somewhere, for while she was here I could +not help seeing her, and after all it was only an aggravation." + +"I can't afford to marry Zell," replied Van Dam, "but I am going up to +see her to-morrow. After being out there by themselves for a month, I +think they will be glad to see some one from the civilized world." The +most honest thing about Van Dam was his sincere commiseration for +those compelled to live in quiet country places, without experience in +the highly spiced pleasures and excitements of the metropolis. In his +mind they were associated with oxen--innocent, rural, and heavy, these +terms being almost synonymous to him, and suggestive of such a forlorn +tame condition that it seemed only vegetating, not living. Mr. Van Dam +believed in a life, like his favorite dishes, that abounded in +cayenne. Zell's letters had confirmed this opinion, and he saw that +she was half desperate with ennui and disgust at their loneliness. + +"I imagine we have stayed away long enough," he continued. "They have +had sufficient of the miseries of mud, rain, and exile, not to be very +nice about the conditions of return to old haunts and life. Of course +I can't afford to marry Zell any more than you can Edith, but for all +that I expect to have her here with me before many months pass, and +perhaps weeks." + +"Look here, Van Dam, you are going too far. Remember how high the +Allens once stood in society," said Gus, a little startled. + +"'Once stood;' where do they stand now? Who in society has lifted, or +will lift a finger for them, and they seem to have no near relatives +to stand by them. I tell you they are at our mercy. Luxury is a +necessity, and yet they are not able to earn their bare bread. + +"Let me inform you," he continued, speaking with the confidence of a +hunter, who from long experience knows just where the game is most +easily captured, "that there is no class more helpless than the very +rich when reduced to sudden poverty. They are usually too proud to +work, in the first place, and in the second, they don't know how to do +anything. What does a fashionable education fit a girl for, I would +like to know, if, as often occurs, she has to make her own way in the +world?--a smattering of everything, mistress of nothing." + +"Well, Van Dam," said Gus, "according to your showing, it fits them +for little schemes like the one you are broaching." + +"Precisely. Girls who know how to work and who are accustomed to it, +will snap their fingers in your face, and tell you they can take care +of themselves, but the class to which the Allens belong, unless kept +up by some rich relations, are soon almost desperate from want. I have +kept up a correspondence with Zell. They seem to have no near +relatives or friends who are doing much for them. They are doing +nothing for themselves, save spend what little there is left, and +their monotonous country life has half-murdered them already. So I +conclude I have waited long enough and will go up to-morrow. Instead +of pouting like a spoiled child over your lost Edith, you had better +go up and get her. It may take a little time and management. Of course +they must be made to think we intend to marry them, but if they once +elope with us, we can find a priest at our leisure." + +"I will go up to-morrow with you any way," said Gus, who, like so many +others, never made a square bargain with the devil, but was easily +"led captive" from one wrong and villany to another. + +It was the last day of April--one on which the rawness and harshness +of early spring were melting into the mildness of May. The buds on the +trees had perceptibly swollen. The flowering maple was still aflame, +the sweet centre of attraction to innumerable bees, the hum of whose +industry rose and fell on the languid breeze. The grass had the +delicate green and exquisite odor belonging to its first growth, and +was rapidly turning the brown, withered sward of winter into emerald. +The sun shone through a slight haze, but shone warmly. The birds had +opened the day with full orchestra, but at noon there was little more +than chirp and twitter, they seeming to feel something of Edith's +languor, as she leaned on the railing of the porch, and watched for +the coming of Malcom. She sighed as she looked at the bare brown earth +of the large space that she purposed for strawberries, and work there +and everywhere seemed repulsive. The sudden heat was enervating and +gave her the feeling of luxurious languor that she longed to enjoy +with a sense of security and freedom from care. But even as her +eyelids drooped with momentary drowsiness, there was a consciousness, +like a dull, half-recognized pain, of insecurity, of impending trouble +and danger, and of a need for exertion that would lead to something +more certain than anything her mother's policy promised. + +She was startled from her heaviness by the sharp click of the gate +latch, and Malcom entered with two large baskets of strawberry-plants. +He had said to her: + +"Wait a bit. The plants will do weel, put oot the last o' the moonth. +An ye wait I'll gie ye the plants I ha' left cover and canna sell the +season. But dinna be troobled, I'll keep it enoof for ye ony way." + +By this means Edith obtained half her plants without cost, save for +Malcom's labor of transplanting them. + +The weather had little influence on Malcom's wiry frame, and his +spirit of energetic, cheerful industry was contagious. Once aroused +and interested, Edith lost all sense of time, and the afternoon passed +happily away. + +At her request Malcom had brought her a pair of pruning nippers, such +as she had seen him use, and she kept up a delicate show of work, +trimming the rose-bushes and shrubs, while she watched him. She could +not bring her mind to anything that looked like real work as yet, but +she had a feeling that it must come. She saw that it would help Malcom +very much if she went before and dropped the plants for him, but some +one might see her, and speak of her doing useful work. The +aristocratically inclined in Pushton would frown on the young lady so +employed, but she could snip at roses and twine vines, and that would +look pretty and rural from the road. + +But it so happened that the one who caught a glimpse of her spring-day +beauty, and saw the pretty rural scene she crowned, was not the +critical occupant of some family carriage; for when, while near the +road, she was reaching up to clip off the topmost spray of a bush, her +attention was drawn by the rattle of a wagon, and in this picturesque +attitude her eyes met those of Arden Lacey. The sudden remembrance of +the unkind return made to him, and the fact that she had therefore +dreaded meeting him, caused her to blush deeply. Her feminine +quickness caught his expression, a timid questioning look, that seemed +to ask if she would act the part of the others. Edith was a society +and city girl, and her confusion lasted but a second. Policy +whispered, "You can still keep him as a useful friend, though you must +keep him at a distance, and you may need him." Some sense of gratitude +and of the wrong done him and his also mingled with these thoughts, +passing with the marvellous rapidity with which a lady's mind acts in +social emergencies. She also remembered that they were alone, and that +none of the Pushton notables could see that she was acquainted with +the "drunken Laceys." Therefore before the diffident Arden could turn +away, she bowed and smiled to him in a genial, conciliatory manner. +His face brightened into instant sunshine, and to her surprise he +lifted his old weather-stained felt hat like a gentleman. Though he +had received no lessons in etiquette, he was inclined to be a little +courtly and stately in manner, when he noticed a lady at all, from +unconscious imitation of the high-bred characters in the romances he +read. He said to himself in glad exultation: + +"She is different from the rest. She is as divinely good as she is +divinely beautiful," and away he rattled toward Pushton as happy as if +his old box wagon were a golden chariot, and he a caliph of Arabian +story on whom had just shone the lustrous eyes of the Queen of the +East. Then as the tumult in his mind subsided, questioning thoughts as +to the cause of her blush came trooping through his mind, and at once +there arose a long vista of airy castles tipped with hope as with +sunlight Poor Arden! What a wild, uncurbed imagination had mastered +his morbid nature, as he lived a hermit's life among the practical +people of Pushton! If he had known that Edith, had she seen him in the +village, would have crossed the street rather than have met or +recognized him, it would have plunged him into still bitterer +misanthropy. She and his mother only stood between him and utter +contempt and hatred of his kind, as they existed in reality, and not +in his books and dreams. + +She forgot all about him before his wagon turned the corner of the +road, and chatted away to Malcom, questioning and nipping with +increasing zest. As the day grew cooler, her spirits rose under the +best of all stimulants, agreeable occupation. The birds ceased at last +their nest-building, and from orchard and grove came many an inspiring +song. Edith listened with keen enjoyment, and country life and work +looked no longer as they had done in the sultry noon. She saw with +deep satisfaction the long rows of strawberry-vines increasing under +Malcom's labors. In the still humid air the plants scarcely wilted and +stood up with the bright look of those well started in life. + +As evening approached, and no carriage of note had passed, Edith +ventured to get her transplanting trowel, doff her gloves, and +commence dividing her flower roots, that she might put them elsewhere. +She became so interested in her work that she was positively happy, +and soft-hearted Malcom, with his eye for the beauties of nature, was +getting his rows crooked, because of so many admiring glances toward +her as she went to and fro. + +The sun was low in the west and shone in crimson through the soft +haze. But the color in her cheeks was richer as she rose from the +ground, her little right hand lost in the scraggly earth-covered roots +of some hardy phlox, and turned to meet exquisite Gus Elliot, dressed +with finished care, his hands incased in immaculate gloves. Her broad-rimmed hat was pushed back, her dress looped up, and she made a +picture in the evening glow that would have driven a true artist half +wild with admiration; but poor Gus was quite shocked. The idea of +Edith Allen, the girl he had meant to marry, grubbing in the dirt and +soiling her hands in that style! It was his impression that only Dutch +women worked in a garden; and for all he knew of its products she +might be setting out a potato plant. Quick Edith caught his +expression, and while she crimsoned with vexation at her plight, felt +a new and sudden sense of contempt for the semblance of a man before +her. + +But with the readiness of a society girl she smoothed her way out of +the dilemma, saying with vivacity: + +"Why, Mr. Elliot, where did you drop from? You have surprised me among +my flowers, you see." + +"Indeed, Miss Edith," said Gus, in rather unhappily phrased gallantry, +"to see you thus employed makes me feel as if we both had dropped into +some new and strange sphere. You seem the lovely shepherdess of this +rural scene, but where is your flock?" + +Shrewd Malcom, near by, watched this scene as the terrier he resembled +might have done, and took instant and instinctive dislike to the new-comer. With a contemptuous sniff he thought to himself, "There's +mateerial enoof in ye for so mooch toward a flock as a calf and a +donkey." + +"A truce to your lame compliments," she said, concealing her vexation +under badinage. "I do not live by hook and crook yet, whatever I may +come to, and I remember that you only appreciate artificial flowers +made by pretty shop girls, and these are not in the country. But come +in. Mother and my sisters will be glad to see you." + +Gus was not blind to her beauty, and while the idea of marriage seemed +more impossible than ever, now that he had seen her hands soiled, the +evil suggestion of Van Dam gained attractiveness with every glance. + +Edith found Mr. Van Dam on the porch with Zell, who had welcomed him +in a manner that meant much to the wily man. He saw how necessary he +was to her, and how she had been living on the hope of seeing him, and +the baseness of his nature was such that instead of being stirred to +one noble kindly impulse toward her, he simply exulted in his power. + +"Oh," said she, as with both hands she greeted him, her eyes half +filling with tears, "we have been living like poor exiles in a distant +land, and you seem as if just from home, bringing the best part of it +with you." + +"And I shall carry you back to it ere long," he whispered. + +Her face grew bright and rosy with the deepest happiness she had ever +know. He had never spoken so plainly before. "Edith can never taunt me +again with his silence," she thought. Though sounding well enough to +the ear, how false were his words! Zell was giving the best love of +which her heart was capable in view of her defective education and +character. In a sincere and deep affection there are great +possibilities of good. Her passion, so frank and strong, in the hands +of a true man, was a lever that might have lifted her to the noblest +life. Van Dam sought to use it only to force her down. He purposed to +cause one of God's little ones to offend. + +Edith soon appeared, dressed with the taste and style of a Fifth +Avenue belle of the more sensible sort, and Gus was comforted. Her +picturesque natural beauty in the garden was quite lost on him, but +now that he saw the familiar touches of the artificial in her general +aspect, she seemed to him the peerless Edith of old. And yet his nice +eye noted that even a month of absence from the fashionable centre had +left her ignorant of some of the shadings off of one mode into +another, and the thought passed over the polished surface of his mind +(all Gus's thoughts were on the surface, there being no other +accommodation for them), "Why, a year in this out-of-the-world life, +and she would be only a country girl." + +But all detracting thoughts of each other, all mean, vile, and deadly +purposes, were hidden under smiling exteriors. Mrs. Allen was the +gracious, elegant matron who would not for the world let her daughters +soil their hands, but schemed to marry one to a weak apology for a +man, and another to a villain out and out, and the fashionable world +would cordially approve and sustain Mrs. Allen's tactics if she +succeeded. + +Laura brightened up more than she had done since her father's death. +Anything that gave hope of return to the city, and the possibility of +again meeting and withering Mr. Goulden with her scorn, was welcome. + +And Edith, while she half despised Gus, found it very pleasant to meet +those of her old set again, and repeat a bit of the past. The young +crave companionship, and in spite of all his weakness she half liked +Elliot. With youth's hopefulness she believed that he might become a +man if he only would. At any rate, she half-consciously formed the +reckless purpose to shut her eyes to all presentiments of coming +trouble and enjoy the evening to the utmost. + +Hannibal was enjoined to get up as fine a supper as possible, +regardless of cost, with Mrs. Allen's maid to assist. + +In the long purple twilight, Edith and Zell, on the arms of their +pseudo lovers, strolled up and down the paths of the little garden and +dooryard. As Edith and Gus were passing along the walk that skirted +the road, she heard the heavy ramble of a wagon that she knew to be +Arden Lacey's. She did not look up or recognize him, but appeared so +intent on what Gus was saying as to be oblivious of all else, and yet +through her long lashes she glanced toward him in a rapid flash, as he +sat in his rough working garb on the old board where she, on the rainy +night of her advent to Pushton, had clung to his arm in the jolting +wagon. Momentary as the glance was, the pained, startled expression of +his face as he bent his eyes full upon her caught her attention and +remained with her. + +His manner and appearance secured the attention of Gus also, and with +a contemptuous laugh he said loud enough for Arden to hear partially: + +"That native comes from pretty far back, I imagine. He looks as if he +never saw a lady and gentleman before. The idea of living like such a +cabbage-head as that!" + +If Gus had not been with Edith, his good clothes and good looks would +have been spoiled within the next five minutes. + +Edith glanced the other way and pointed to her strawberry-bed as if +not noticing his remark or its object, saying: + +"If you will come and see us a year from next June, I can give you a +dainty treat from these plants." + +"You will not be here next June," said Gus tenderly. "Do you imagine +we can spare you from New York? The city has seemed dull since robbed +of the light of your bright eyes." + +Edith rather liked sugar-plums of such make, even from Gus, and she, +as it were, held out her hand again by the rather sentimental remark: + +"Absent ones are soon forgotten." + +Gus, from much experience, knew how to flirt beautifully, and so with +some aptness and show of feeling, replied: + +"From my thoughts you are never absent." + +Edith gave him a quick questioning look. What did he mean? He had +avoided everything tending to commit him to a penniless girl after her +father's death. Was this mere flirtation? Or had he, in absence, +learned his need of her for happiness? and was he now willing to marry +her even though poor? + +"If he is man enough to do this, he is capable of doing more," she +thought quickly, and circumstances pleaded for him. She felt so +troubled about the future, so helpless and lonely, and he seemed so +inseparably associated with her old bright life, that she was tempted +to lean on such a swaying reed as she knew Gus to be. She did not +reply, but he could see the color deepen in her cheeks even in the +fading twilight, her bosom rose and fell more quickly, and her hand +rested upon his arm with a more confiding pressure. What more could he +ask? and he exulted. + +But before he could speak again they were summoned to supper. Van Dam +touched Gus's elbow as they passed in and whispered: + +"Don't be precipitate. Say nothing definite to-night. I gather from +Zell that a little more of their country purgatory will render them +wholly desperate." + +Edith noticed the momentary detention and whispering, and the thought +that there was some understanding between the two occurred to her. For +some undefined reason she was always inclined to be suspicious and on +the alert when Mr. Van Dam was present. And yet it was but a passing +thought, soon forgotten in the enjoyment of the evening, after so long +and dull an experience. Zell was radiant, and there was a glimmer of +color in Laura's pale cheeks. + +After supper they sat down to cards. The decanter was placed on the +side table, and heavy inroads were made on Mrs. Allen's limited stock +of wine, for the gentlemen, feeling that they were off on a lark, were +little inclined to self-control. They also insisted on the ladies +drinking health with them, which foolish Zell, and more foolish Mrs. +Allen were too ready to do, and for the first time since their coming +the little cottage resounded with laughter that was too loud and +frequent to be inspired by happiness only. + +If guardian angels watched there, as we believe they do everywhere, +they may well have veiled their faces in sadness and shame. + +But the face of poor innocent Hannibal shone with delight, and nodding +his head toward Mr. Allen's maid with the complacency of a prophet who +saw his predictions fulfilled, he said: + +"I told you my young ladies wasn't gwine to stay long in Bushtown" (as +Hannibal persisted in calling the place). + +To Arden Lacey, the sight of Edith listening with glowing cheeks and +intent manner to a stranger with her hand within his arm--a stranger +too that seemed the embodiment of that conventionality of the world +which he despised and hated, was a vision that pierced like a sword. +And then Gus's contemptuous words and Edith's non-recognition, though +he tried to believe she had not seen him, were like vitriol to a +wound. At first there was a mad impulse of anger toward Elliot, and, +as we have intimated, only Edith's presence prevented Arden from +demanding instant apology. He knew enough of his fiery nature to feel +that he must get away as fast as possible, or he might forever +disgrace himself in Edith's eyes. + +As he rode home his mind was in a sad chaos. He was conscious that his +airy castles were falling about him with a crash, which, though +unheard by all the world, shook his soul to the centre. + +Too utterly miserable to face his mother, loathing the thought of +food, he put up his horses and rushed out into the night. + +In his first impulse he vowed never to look toward Edith again, but, +before two hours of fruitless wandering had passed, a fascination drew +him toward Edith's cottage, only to hear that detested voice again, +only to hear even Edith's laugh ring out too loud and reckless to come +from the lips of the exquisite ideal of his dreams. Though the others +had spoken in thunder tones, he would have had ears for these two +voices only. He rushed away from the spot, as one might from some +torturing vision, exclaiming: + +"The real world is a worse mockery than the one of my dreams. Would to +heaven I had never been born!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WE CAN'T WORK + + + +The gentlemen agreed to meet the ladies the next day at church. Mrs. +Allen insisted upon it, as she wished to show the natives of Pushton +that they were visited by people of style from the city. As yet they +had not received many calls, and those venturing had come in a +reconnoitring kind of way. She knew so little of solid country people +as to suppose that two young men, like Gus Elliot and Van Dam, would +make a favorable impression. The latter, with a shrug and grimace at +Zell, which she, poor child, thought funny, promised to do so, and +then they took leave with great cordiality. + +So they were ready to hand the Allens out of their carriage the next +morning, and were, with the ladies, who were dressed even more +elaborately than on the previous Sabbath, shown to a prominent pew, +the centre of many admiring eyes, as they supposed. But where one +admired, ten criticised. The summer hotel at Pushton had brought New +York too near and made it too familiar for Mrs. Allen's tactics. +Visits to town were easily made and frequent, and by brief diversions +of their attention from the service, the good church people soon +satisfied themselves that the young men belonged to the bold fast +type, an impression strengthened by the parties themselves, who had +devotion only for Zell and Edith, and a bold stare for any pretty girl +that caught their eyes. + +After church they parted with the understanding that the gentlemen +should come out toward night and spend the evening. + +Mr. Van Dam and Gus Elliot dined at the village hotel, having ordered +the best dinner that the landlord was capable of serving, and a couple +of bottles of wine. Over this they became so exhilarated as to attract +a good deal of attention. A village tavern is always haunted by idle +clerks, and a motley crowd of gossips, on the Sabbath, and to these +the irruption of two young bloods from the city was a slight break in +the monotony of their slow shuffling jog toward perdition; and when +the fine gentlemen began to get drunk and noisy it was really quite +interesting. A group gathered round the bar, and through the open door +could see into the dining-room. Soon with unsteady step, Van Dam and +Elliot joined them, the latter brandishing an empty bottle, and +calling in a thick loud voice: + +"Here landlord (hic) open a bottle (hic) of wine, for these poor (hic) +suckers, (hic) I don't suppose (hic) they ever tasted (hic) anything +better than corn-whiskey, (hic) But I'll moisten (hic) their gullets +to-day (hic) with a gentleman's drink." + +The crowd was mean enough, as the loafers about a tavern usually are, +to give a faint cheer at the prospect of a treat, even though +accompanied by words equivalent to a kick. But one big raw-boned +fellow, who looked equal to any amount of corn-whiskey or anything +else, could not swallow Gus's insolence, and stepped up saying: + +"Look here, Cap'n, I'm ready enough to drink with a chap when he asks +me like a gentleman, but I feel more like puttin' a head on you than +drinkin' with yer." + +Gus had the false courage of wine and prided himself on his boxing. In +the headlong fury of drunkenness he flung the bottle at the man's +head, just grazing it, and sprang toward him, but stumbled and fell. +The man, with a certain rude sense of chivalry, waited for him to get +up, but the mean loafers who had cheered were about to manifest their +change of sentiment toward Gus by kicking him in his prostrate +condition. Van Dam, who also had drunk too much to be his cool careful +self, now drew a pistol, and with a savage volley of oaths swore he +would shoot the first man who touched his friend. Then, helping Gus +up, he carried him off to a private room, and with the skill of an old +experienced hand set about righting himself and Elliot, so that they +might be in a presentable condition for their visit at the Allens'. + +"Curse it all, Gus, why can you not keep within bounds? If this gets +to the girls' ears it may spoil everything." + +By five o'clock Gus had so far recovered as to venture to drive to the +Allens', and the fresh air restored him rapidly. Before leaving, the +landlord said to Van Dam: + +"You had better stay out there all night. From what I hear the boys +are going to lay for you when you come home to-night. I don't want any +rows connected with my house. I'd rather you wouldn't come back." + +Van Dam muttered an oath, and told the driver to go on. + +As a matter of course they were received very cordially. Gus was quite +himself again. He only seemed a little more inclined than usual to be +sentimental and in high spirits. + +They walked again in the twilight through the garden and under the +budding trees of the orchard. Gus assumed a caressing tone and manner, +which Edith half received and half resented. She felt that she did not +know her own mind and did not understand him altogether, and so she +took a diplomatic middle course that would leave her free to go +forward or retreat. Zell, under the influence of Mr. Van Dam's +flattering manner, walked in a beautiful but lurid dream. At last they +all gathered in the parlor and chatted and laughed over old times. + +On this Sabbath evening one of the officers of the church, seeing that +the Allens had twice worshipped with them, felt that perhaps he ought +to call and give them some encouragement. As he came up the path he +was surprised at the confused sound of voices. With his hand on the +door-bell he paused, and through an opening between the curtains saw +the young men of whose bar-room performance he had happened to hear. +Not caring to meet any of their sort he went silently away, shaking +his head with ill-omened significance. Of course one good man told his +wife what sort of company their new neighbors kept, and whom didn't +she tell? + +The evening grew late, but no carriage came from the village. + +"It's very strange," said Van Dam. + +"If it doesn't come you must stay all night," said Mrs. Allen +graciously. "We can make you quite comfortable even if we have a +little house." + +Mr. Van Dam, and Gus also, were profuse in their thanks. Edith bit her +lip with vexation. She felt that she and Zell were being placed in a +false position since the gentlemen who to the world would seem so +intimate with the family in reality held no relation to them. But no +scruples of prudence occurred to thoughtless Zell. With an arch look +toward her lover she said: + +"I think it threatens rain, so of course you cannot go." + +"Let us go out and see," he said. + +In the darkness of the porch he put his arm around the unresisting +girl and drew her to him, but he did not say like a true man: + +"Zell, be my wife." + +But poor Zell thought that was what all his attention and show of +affection meant. + +Edith and Gus joined them, and the latter thought also to put his +regard in the form of caressing action, rather than in honest +outspoken words, but she turned and said a little sharply: + +"You have no right." + +"Give me the right then," he whispered. + +"Whether I shall ever do that I cannot say. It depends somewhat on +yourself. But I cannot now and here." + +The warning hand of Van Dam was reached through the darkness and +touched Gus's arm. + +The next morning they walked back to the village, were driven two or +three miles to the nearest railway station, and took the train to the +city, having promised to come again soon. + +The week following their departure was an eventful one to the inmates +of the little cottage, and all unknown the most unfavorable influences +were at work against them. The Sunday hangers-on of a tavern have +their points of contact with the better classes, and gossip is a +commodity always in demand, whatever brings it to market. Therefore +the scenes in the dining and bar rooms, in which Mrs. Allen's +"friends" had played so prominent a part, were soon portrayed in hovel +and mansion alike, with such exaggerations and distortions as a story +inevitably suffers as passed along. The part acted by the young men +was certainly bad enough, but rumor made it much worse. Then this +stream of gossip was met by another coming from the wife of the good +man who had called with the best intentions on Sunday evening, but, +pained at the nature of the Allen's associations, had gone lamenting +to his wife, and she had gone lamenting to the majority of the elder +ladies of the church. These two streams uniting, quite a tidal wave of +"I want to knows," and "painful surprises," swept over Pushton, and +the Allens suffered wofully through their friends. They had already +received some reconnoitering calls, and a few from people who wanted +to be neighborly. But the truth was the people of Pushton had been +somewhat perplexed. They did not know where to place the Allens. The +fact that Mr. Allen had been a rich merchant, and lived on Fifth +Avenue, counted for something. But then even the natives of Pushton +knew that all kinds of people lived on Fifth Avenue, as elsewhere, and +that some of the most disreputable were the richest. A clearer +testimonial than that was therefore needed. Then again there was +another puzzle. The fact that Mr. Allen had failed, and that they +lived in a little house, indicated poverty. But their style of +dressing and ordering from the store also suggested not a little +property left. The humbler portion of the community doubted whether +they were the style of people for them to call on, and the rumor of +Rose Lacey's treatment, getting abroad in spite of Arden's injunction +to the contrary, confirmed these doubts, and alienated this class. The +more wealthy and fashionably inclined doubted the grounds for their +calling, having by no means made up their minds whether they could +take the Allens into their exclusive circle. So thus far Mrs. Allen +and her daughters had given audience to a sort of middle class of +skirmishers and scouts representing no one in particular save +themselves, who from a _penchant_ in that direction went out and +obtained information, so that the more solid ranks behind could know +what to do. In addition, as we have intimated, there were a few good +kindly people who said: + +"These strangers have come to live among us, and we must give them a +neighborly welcome." + +But there was something in their homely honest heartiness that did not +suit Mrs. Allen's artificial taste, and she rather snubbed them. + +"Heaven deliver us soon from Pushton," she said, "if the best people +have no more air of quality than these outlandish tribes. They all +look and act as if they had come out of the ark." + +If the Allens had frankly and patiently accepted their poverty and +misfortunes, and by close economy and some form of labor had sought to +maintain an honest independence, they could soon, through this latter +class, have become _en rapport_ with, not the wealthy and fashionable, +but the finest people of the community; people having the refinement, +intelligence, and heart to make the best friends we can possess. It +might take some little time. It ought to. Social recognition and +esteem should be earned. Unless strangers bring clear letters of +credit, or established reputation, they must expect to be put on +probation. But if they adopt a course of simple sincerity and dignity, +and especially one of great prudence, they are sure to find the right +sort of friends, and win the social position to which they are justly +entitled. But let the finger of scandal and doubt be pointed toward +them, and all having sons and daughters will stand aloof on the ground +of self-protection, if nothing else. The taint of scandal, like the +taint of leprosy, causes a general shrinking away. + +The finger of doubt and scandal in Pushton was now most decidedly +pointed toward the Allens. It was reported around: + +"Their father was a Wall Street gambler who lost all in a big +speculation and died suddenly or committed suicide. They belonged to +the ultra-fast fashionable set in New York, and the events of the past +Sabbath show that they are not the persons for self-respecting people +to associate with." + +Some of the rather dissipated clerks and semi-loafers of the village +were inclined to make the acquaintance of such stylish handsome girls, +but the Allens received the least advance from them with ineffable +scorn. + +Thus within the short space of a month Mrs. Allen had, by her policy, +contrived to isolate her family as completely as if they had had a +pestilence. + +Even Mrs. Lacey and Rose were inclined to pass from indignation to +contempt; for Mr. Lacey was present at the scene in the bar-room, and +reported that the "two young bucks were friends of their new +neighbors, the Allens, and had stayed there all Sunday night because +they darsn't go back to town." + +"Well," said Rose, "with all their airs, I haven't got to keeping +company with that style of men yet." + +"Cease to call yourself my sister if you ever do knowingly," said +Arden sternly. "I don't believe Edith Allen knows the character of +these men. They would not report themselves, and who is to do it?" + +"Perhaps you had better," said Rose maliciously. + +Arden's only answer was a dark frowning look. A severe conflict was +progressing in his mind. One impulse was to regard Edith as unworthy +of another thought. But his heart pleaded for her, and the thought +that she was different from the rest, and capable of developing a +character as beautiful as her person, grew stronger as he dwelt upon +it. + +"Like myself, she is related to others that drag her down," he +thought, "and she seems to have no friend or brother to protect or +warn her. Even if this over-dressed young fool is her lover, if she +could have seen him prostrate on the bar-room floor, she would never +look at him again. If she would I would never look at her." + +His romantic nature became impressed with the idea that he might +become in some sense her unknown knight and protector, and keep her +from marrying a man that would sink to what his father was. Therefore +he passed the house as often as he could in hope that there might be +some opportunity of seeing her. + +To poor Edith troubles thickened fast, for, as we have seen, the brunt +of everything came on her. Early on the forenoon of Monday the +carpenter appeared, asking with a hard, determined tone for his money, +adding with satire: + +"I suppose it's all right of course. People who want everything done +at once must expect to pay promptly." + +"Your bill is much too large--much larger than you gave us any reason +to suppose it would be," said Edith. + +"I've only charged you regular rates, miss, and you put me to no +little inconvenience besides." + +"That's not the point. It's double the amount you gave us to +understand it would be, and if you should deduct the damage caused by +your delay it would greatly reduce it. I do not feel willing that this +bill should be paid as it stands." + +"Very well then," said the man, coolly rising. "You threatened me with +a lawyer; I'll let my lawyer settle with you." + +"Edith," said Mrs. Allen majestically, "bring my checkbook." + +"Don't pay it, mother. He can't make us pay such a bill in view of the +fact that he left our roof open in the rain." + +"Do as I bid you," said Mrs. Allen impressively. + +"There," she said to the chuckling builder, in lofty scorn, throwing +toward him a check as if it were dirt. "Now leave the presence of +ladies whom you don't seem to know much about." + +The man reddened and went out muttering that "he had seen quite as +good ladies before." + +Two days later a letter from Mrs. Allen's bank brought dismay by +stating that she had overdrawn her account. + +The next day there came a letter from their lawyer saying that a +messenger from the bank had called upon him--that he was sorry they +had spent all their money--that he could not sell the stock he held at +any price now--and they had better sell their house in the country and +board. + +This Mrs. Allen was inclined to do, but Edith said almost fiercely: + +"I won't sell it. I am bound to have some place of refuge in this +hard, pitiless world. I hold the deed of this property, and we +certainly can get something to eat off of it, and if we must starve, +no one at least can disturb us." + +"What can we do?" said Mrs. Allen, crying and wringing her hands. + +"We ought to have saved our money and gone to work at something," +answered Edith sternly. + +"I am not able to work," whined Laura. + +"I don't know how to work, and I won't starve either," cried Zell +passionately. "I shall write to Mr. Van Dam this very day and tell him +all about it." + +"I would rather work my fingers off," retorted Edith scornfully, "than +have a man come and marry me out of charity, finding me as helpless as +if I were picked up off the street, and on the street we should soon +be, without shelter or friends, if we sold this place." + +And so the blow fell upon them, and such was the spirit with which +they bore it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE TEMPTATION + + + +The same mail brought them a long bill from Mr. Hard, accompanied with +a very polite but decisive note saying that it was his custom to have +a monthly settlement with his customers. + +The rest of the family looked with new dismay and helplessness at +this, and Edith added bitterly: + +"There are half a dozen other bills also." + +"What can we do?" again Mrs. Allen cried piteously. "If you girls had +only accepted some of your splendid offers--" + +"Hush, mother," said Edith imperiously. "I have heard that refrain too +often already," and the resolute practical girl went to her room and +shut herself up to think. + +Two hours later she came down to lunch with the determined air of one +who had come to a conclusion. + +"These bills must be met, in part at least," she said, "and the sooner +the better. After that we must buy no more than we can pay for, if +it's only a crust of bread. I shall take the first train to-morrow and +dispose of some of my jewelry. Who of you will contribute some also? +We all have more than we shall ever need." + +"Pawn our jewelry!" they all shrieked. + +"No, sell it," said Edith firmly. + +"You hateful creature!" sobbed Zell. "If Mr. Van Dam heard it he would +never come near me again." + +"If he's that kind of a man, he had better not," was the sharp retort. + +"I'll never forgive you if you do it. You shall not spoil all my +chances and your own too. He as good as offered himself to me, and I +insist on your giving me a chance to write to him before you take one +of your mad steps." + +They all clamored against her purpose so strongly that Edith was borne +down and reluctantly gave way. Zell wrote immediately a touching, +pathetic letter that would have moved a man of one knightly instinct +to come to her rescue. Van Dam read it with a look of fiendish +exultation, and calling on Gus said: + +"We will go up to-morrow. The right time has come. They won't be nice +as to terms any longer." + +It was an unfortunate thing for Edith that she had yielded at this +time to the policy of waiting one hour longer. In the two days that +intervened before the young men appeared there was time for that kind +of thought that tempts and weakens. She was in that most dangerous +attitude of irresolution. The toilsome path of independent labor +looked very hard and thorny--more than that, it looked lonely. This +latter aspect causes multitudes to shrink, where the work would not. +She knew enough of society to feel sure that her mother was right, and +that the moment she entered on bread-winning by any form of honest +labor, her old fashionable world was lost to her forever. And she knew +of no other world, she had no other friends save those of the gilded +past. She did not, with her healthful frame and energetic spirit, +shrink so much from labor as from association with the laboring +classes. She had been educated to think of them only as coarse and +common, and to make no distinctions. + +"Even if a few are good and intelligent as these Laceys seem, they +can't understand my feelings and past life, so there will be no +congeniality, and I shall have to work practically alone. Perhaps in +time I shall become coarse and common like the rest," she said with a +half-shudder at the thought of old-fashioned garb, slipshod dressing, +and long monotonous hours at one employment. All these were +inseparable in her mind from poverty and labor. + +Then after a long silence, during which she had sat with her chin +resting on her hands, she continued: + +"I believe I could stand it if I could earn a support out of the +garden with such a man as Malcom to help me. There are variety and +beauty there, and scope for constant improvement. But I fear a woman +can't make a livelihood by such out-of-door, man-like work. Good +heavens! what would my Fifth Avenue friends say if it should get to +their ears that Edith Allen was raising cabbages for market?" + +Then in contrast, as the alternative to labor, Gus Elliot continually +presented himself. + +"If he were only more of a man!" she thought. "But if he loves me so +well as to marry me in view of my poverty, he must have some true +manhood about him. I suppose I could learn to love him after a +fashion, and I certainly like him as well as any one I know. Perhaps +if I were with him to cheer, incite, and scold, he might become a fair +business man after all." + +And so Edith in her helplessness and fear of work was tempted to enter +on that forlorn experiment which so many energetic women of decided +character have made--that of marrying a man who can't stand alone, or +do anything but dawdle, in the hope that they may be able to infuse in +him some of their own moral and intellectual backbone. + +But Gus Elliot was not man enough, had not sense enough, to give her +this poor chance of matrimonial escape from labor that seemed to her +like a giant taskmaster, waiting with grimy, horny hand to claim her +as another of his innumerable slaves. Though a life of lonely, ill-paid toil would have been better for Edith than marriage to Gus, he +was missing the one golden opportunity of his life, when he thought of +Edith Allen in other character than his wife. God uses instruments, +and she alone could give him a chance of being a man among men. In his +meditated baseness toward her, he aimed a fatal blow at his own life. + +And this is ever true of sins against the human brotherhood. The +recoil of a blow struck at another's interests has often the +retributive wrath of heaven in it, and the selfish soul that would +destroy a fellow-creature for its own pleasure is itself destroyed. + +False pride, false education, helpless, unskilled hands, an untaught, +unbraced moral nature, made strong, resolute, beautiful Edith Allen so +weak, so untrue to herself, that she was ready to throw herself away +on so thin a shadow of a man as Gus Elliot. She might have known, +indeed she half feared, that wretchedness would follow such a union. +It is torment to a large strong-souled woman to despise utterly the +man to whom she is chained. She revolts at his weakness and +irresolution, and the probabilities are that she will sink into that +worst phase of feminine drudgery, the supporting of a husband, who, +though able, will not work, and that she will become that social +monster of whom it is said with a significant laugh: + +"She is the man of the house." + +The only thing that reconciled her to the thought of marrying Gus was +the hope that she could inspire him to better things; and he seemed +the only refuge from the pressing troubles that environed her, and +from a lonely life of labor; for the thought that she could bring +herself to marry among the laboring classes had never occurred to her. + +So she came to the miserable conclusion on the afternoon of the second +day: + +"I'll take him if he will me, knowing how I am situated." + +If Gus could have been true and manly one evening, he might have +secured a prop that would have kept him up, though it would have been +at sad cost to Edith. + +On the afternoon of Friday, Zell returned from the village with +radiant face, and, waving a letter before Edith who sat moping in her +room, exclaimed with a thrill of ecstasy in her tone: + +"They are coming. Help make me irresistible." + +Edith felt the influence of Zell's excitement, and the mysteries of +the toilet began. Nature had done much for these girls, and they knew +how to enhance every charm by art. Edith good-naturedly helped her +sister, weaving pure shimmering pearls in the heavy braids of her +hair, whose raven hue made the fair face seem more fair. The toilet-table of a queen had not the secrets of Zell's beauty, for the most +skilful art must deal with the surface, while Zell's loveliness glowed +from within. Her rich young blood mantled her cheek with a color that +came and went with her passing thoughts, and was as unlike the +flaming, unchanging red of a painted face as sunlight that flickers +through a breezy grove is to a gas-jet. Her eyes shone with the deep +excitement of a passionate love, and the feeling that the crisis of +her life was near. Even Edith gazed with wondering admiration at her +beauty, as she gave the finishing touches to her toilet, before she +commenced her own. + +Discarded Laura had a sorry part in the poor little play. She was to +be ill and unable to appear, and so resigned herself to a novel and +solitude. Mrs. Allen was to discreetly have a headache and retire +early, and thus all embarrassing third parties should be kept out of +the way. + +The late afternoon of Friday (unlucky day for once) brought the +gentlemen, dressed as exquisitely as ever, but the vision on the +rustic little porch almost dazzled even their experienced eyes. They +had seen these girls more richly dressed before and more radiant. +There was, however, a delicious pensiveness hanging over them now, +like those delicate veils that enhance beauty and conceal nothing. And +there was a deep undertone of excitement that gave them a magnetic +power that they could not have in quieter moods. + +Their appearance and manner of greeting caused secret exultation in +the black hearts that they expected would be offered to them that +night, but Edith looked so noble as well as beautiful that Gus rather +trembled in view of his part in the proposed tragedy. As warm and +gentle as had been her greeting, she did not appear like a girl that +could be safely trifled with. However, Gus knew his one source of +courage and kept up on brandy all day, and he proposed a heavier +onslaught than ever on poor Mrs. Allen's wine. But Edith did not bring +it out. She meant that all that was said that night should be spoken +in sober earnest. + +They sat down to cards for a while after tea, during which +conversation was rather forced, consisting mainly of extravagant +compliments from the gentlemen, and tender, meaning glances which the +girls did not resent. Mrs. Allen languidly joined them for a while, +and excused herself saying: + +"My poor head has been too heavily taxed of late," though how, save as +a small distillery of helpless tears, we do not remember. + +The regret of the young men at being deprived of her society was quite +affecting in view of the fact that they had often wished her dead and +out of the way. + +"Why should we shut ourselves up within walls this lovely spring +evening, this delicious earnest of the coming summer?" said Mr. Van +Dam to Zell. "Come, put on your shawl and show me your garden by +moonlight." + +Zell exultingly complied, believing that now she would show him, not +their poor little garden, but the paradise of requited love. A moment +later her graceful form, bending like a willow toward him, vanished in +the dusky light of the rising moon, down the garden path which led to +the little arbor. + +Gus, having the parlor to himself, went over to the sofa, seated +himself by the side of Edith and sought to pass his arm around her +waist. "You have no right," again said Edith with dignity, shrinking +away. + +"But will you not give the right? Behold me a suppliant at your feet," +said Gus tenderly, but comfortably keeping his seat. + +"Mr. Elliot," said Edith earnestly, "do you realize that you are +asking a poor girl to marry you?" + +"Your own beautiful self is beyond all gold," said Gus gushingly. + +"You did not think so a month ago," retorted Edith bitterly. + +"I was a fool. My friends discouraged it, but I find I cannot live +without you." + +This sounded well to poor Edith, but she said half sadly: + +"Perhaps your friends are right. You cannot afford to marry me." + +"But I cannot give you up," said Gus with much show of feeling. "What +would my life be without you? I admit to you that my friends are +opposed to my marriage, but am I to blight my life for them? Am I, who +have seen the best of New York for years, to give up the loveliest +girl I have ever seen in it? I cannot and I will not," concluded Gus +tragically. + +"And are you willing to give up all for me?" said Edith feelingly, her +glorious eyes becoming gentle and tender. + +"Yes, if you will give up all for me," said Gus languishingly, taking +her hand and drawing her toward him. + +Edith did not resist now, but leaned her head on his shoulder with the +blessed sense of rest and at least partial security. Her cruelly +harassed heart and burdened, threatened life could welcome even such +poor shelter as Gus Elliot offered. The spring evening was mild and +breathless, and its hush and peace seemed to accord with her feelings. +There was no ecstatic thrilling of her heart in the divine rapture of +mutual and open recognition of love, for no such love existed on her +part. It was only a languid feeling of contentment--moon-lighted with +sentiment, not sun-lighted with joy--that she had found some one who +would not leave her to labor and struggle alone. + +"Gus," she said pathetically, "we are very poor; we have nothing. We +are almost desperate from want. Think twice ere you engage yourself to +a girl so situated. Are you able to thus burden yourself?" + +Gus thought these words led the way to the carrying out of Van Dam's +instructions, for he said eagerly: + +"I know how you are situated. I learned all from Zell's letter to Van +Dam, but our hearts only cling the closer to you, and you must let me +take care of you at once. If you will only consent to a secret +marriage I can manage it." + +Edith slowly raised her head from his shoulder. Gus could not meet her +eyes, but felt them fixed searchingly on his face. There was a distant +mutter of thunder like a warning voice. He continued hurriedly: + +"I think you will agree with me, when you think of it, that such a +marriage would be best. It would be hard for me to break with my +family at once. Indeed I could not afford to anger my father now. But +I would soon get established in business myself, and I would work so +hard if I knew that you were dependent on me!" + +"Then you would wish me to remain here in obscurity your wife," said +Edith in a low constrained tone that Gus did not quite like. + +"Oh, no, not for the world," replied Gus hurriedly. "It is because I +so long for your daily and hourly presence that I urge you to come to +the city at once." + +"What is your plan then?" asked Edith in the same low tone. + +"Go with me to the city, on the boat that passes here in the evening. +I will see that you are lodged where you will have every comfort, yes +luxury. We can there be quietly married, and when the right time comes +we can openly acknowledge it." + +There was a tremble in Edith's voice when she again spoke, it might be +from mere excitement or anger. At any rate Gus grew more and more +uncomfortable. He had a vague feeling that Edith suspected his +falseness, and that her seeming calmness might presage a storm, and he +found it impossible to meet her full searching gaze, fearing that his +face would betray him. He was bad enough for his project, but not +quite brazen enough. + +She detached herself from his encircling arm, went to a book-stand +near and took from it a richly bound Bible. With this she came and +stood before Gus, who was half trembling with fear and perplexity, and +said in a tone so grave and solemn that his weak impressible nature +was deeply moved: + +"Mr. Elliot, perhaps I do not understand you. I have received several +offers before, but never one like yours this evening. Indeed I need +not remind you that you have spoken to me in a different vein. I know +circumstances have greatly altered with me. That I am no longer the +daughter of a millionaire, I am learning to my sorrow, but I am the +same Edith Allen that you knew of old. I would not like to misjudge +you, one of my oldest, most intimate friends of the happy past. And +yet, as I have said, I do not quite understand your offer. Place your +hand on this sacred book with me, and, as you hope for God's mercy, +answer me this truly. Would you wish your own sister to accept such an +offer, if she were situated like myself? Look me, an honest girl with +all my faults and poverty, in the face, and tell me as a true +brother." + +Gus felt himself in an awful dilemma. Something in Edith's solemn tone +and look convinced him that both he and Van Dam had misjudged her. His +knees trembled so that he could scarcely rise. A fascination that he +could not resist drew his face, stamped with guilt, toward her, and +slowly he raised his fearful eyes and for a moment met Edith's +searching, questioning gaze, then dropped them in confusion. + +"Why do you not put your hand on the book and speak?" she asked in the +low, concentrated voice of passion. + +Again he looked hurriedly at her. A flash of lightning illumined her +features, and he quailed before an expression such as he had never +seen before on any woman's face. + +"I--I--cannot," he faltered. + +The Bible dropped from her hands, they clasped, and for a moment she +seemed to writhe in agony, and in a low, shuddering tone she said: + +"There are none to trust--not one." + +Then, as if possessed by a sudden fury, she seized him roughly by the +arm and said hoarsely: + +"Speak, man! what then did you mean? What have all your tender +speeches and caressing actions meant?" + +Her face grew livid with rage and shame as the truth dawned upon her, +while poor feeble Gus lost his poise utterly and stood like a detected +criminal before her. + +"You asked me to marry you," she hissed. "Must no one ask your +immaculate sisters to do this, that you could not answer my simple +question? Or, did you mean something else? How dare you exist longer +in the semblance of a man? You have broken the sacred law of +hospitality, and here, in my little home that has sheltered you, you +purpose my destruction. You take mean advantage of my poverty and +trouble, and like a cowardly hunter must seek out a wounded doe as +your game. My grief and misfortune should have made a sanctuary about +me, but the orphaned and unfortunate, God's trust to all true men, +only invite your evil designs, because defenceless. Wretch, would you +have made me this offer if my father had lived, or if I had a +brother?" + +"It's all Van Dam's work, curse him," groaned Gus, white as a ghost. + +"Van Dam's work!" shrieked Edith, "and he's with Zell! So this is a +conspiracy. You both are the flower of chivalry," and her mocking, +half-hysterical laugh curdled Gus's blood, as her dress fluttered down +the path that led to the arbor. + +She appeared in the doorway like a sudden, supernatural vision, Zell's +head rested on Mr. Van Dam's shoulder, and he was portraying in low, +ardent tones the pleasures of city life, which would be hers as his +wife. + +"It is true," he had said, "our marriage must be secret for the +present. You must learn to trust me. But the time will soon come when +I can acknowledge you as my peerless bride." + +Foolish little Zell was too eager to escape present miseries to be +nice and critical as to the conditions, and too much in love, too +young and unsuspecting, to doubt the man who had petted her from a +child. She agreed to do anything he thought best. + +Then Edith's entrance and terrible words broke her pretty dream in +fragments. + +Snatching her sister from Van Dam's embrace, she cried passionately: + +"Leave this place. Your villany is discovered." + +"Really, Miss Edith"--began Van Dam with a poor show of dignity. + +"Leave instantly!" cried Edith imperiously. "Do you wish me to strike +you?" + +"Edith, are you mad?" cried Zell. + +"Your sister must have lost her reason," said Van Dam, approaching +Zell. + +"Stand back," cried Edith sternly. "I may go mad before this hateful +night passes, but while I have strength and reason left, I will drive +the wolves from our fold. Answer me this: have you not been proposing +secret marriage to my sister?" + +Her face looked spirit-like in the pale moonlight, and her eyes blazed +like coals of fire. As she stood there with her arm around her +bewildered, trembling sister, she seemed a guardian angel holding a +baffled fiend at bay. + +This was literally true, for even hardened Van Dam quailed before her, +and took refuge in the usual resource of his satanic ally--lies. + +"I assure you, Miss Edith, you do me great injustice. I have only +asked your sister that our marriage be private for a time--" + +"The same wretched bait--the same transparent falsehood," Edith cried. +"We cannot be married openly at our own home, but must go away with +you, two spotless knights, to New York. Do you take us for silly +fools? You know well what the world would say of ladies that so +compromised themselves, and no true man would ask this of a woman he +meant to make his wife. These premises are mine. Leave them." + +Van Dam was an old villain who had lived all his life in the +atmosphere of brawls and intrigue, therefore he said brazenly: + +"There is no use in wasting words on an angry woman. Zell, my darling, +do me justice. Don't give me up, as I never shall you," and he +vanished on the road toward the village, where Gus was skulking on +before him. + +"You weak, unmitigated fool," said he savagely, "why did I bring you?" + +"Look here, Van Dam," whined Gus, "that isn't the way to speak to a +gentleman." + +"Gentleman! ha, ha," laughed Van Dam bitterly. + +"I be hanged if I feel like one to-night. A pretty scrape you have got +me into," snarled Gus. + +"Well," said Van Dam cynically. "I thought I was too old to learn much +more, but you may shoot me if I ever go on a lark again with one of +your weak villains who is bad enough for anything, but has brains +enough only to get found out. If it hadn't been for you I would have +carried my point. And I will yet," he added with an oath. "I never +give up a game I have once started." + +And so they plodded on with mutual revilings and profanity, till Gus +became afraid of Van Dam, and was silent. + +The dark cloud that had risen unnoted in the south, like the slowly +gathering and impending wrath of God, now broke upon them in sudden +gusts, and then chased them, with pelting torrents of rain and +stinging hail, into the village. The sin-wrought chaos--the hellish +discord of their evil natures--seemed to have infected the peaceful +spring evening, for now the very spirit of the storm appeared abroad. +The rush and roar of the wind was so strong, the lightning so vivid, +and the crashing thunder peals overhead so terrific, that even +hardened Van Dam was awed, and Gus was so frightened and conscience-smitten that he could scarcely keep up with his companion, but +shuddered at the thought of being left alone. + +At last they reached the tavern, roused the startled landlord, and +obtained welcome shelter. + +"What!" he said, "are the boys after you?" + +"No, no," said Van Dam impatiently; "the devil is after us in this +infernal storm. Give us two rooms, a fire, and some brandy as soon as +possible, and charge what you please." + +When Grus viewed himself in the mirror, as he at once did from long +habit, his haggard face, drenched, mud-splashed form, awakened sincere +self-commiseration; and his stained, bedraggled clothes troubled him +more than his soiled character. He did not remember the time when he +had not been well dressed, and to be so was his religion--the sacred +instinct of his life. Therefore he was inexpressibly shocked, and +almost ready to cry, as he saw his forlorn reflection in the glass. +And he had no change with him. What should he do? All other phases of +the disastrous night were lost in this. + +"There is nothing to be bought in this mean little town, and how can I +go to the city in this plight?" he anxiously queried. + +"Go to the devil then," and the sympathetic Van Dam wrapped himself up +and went to sleep. + +Gus worked fussily at his clothes till a late hour, devoutly hoping he +should meet no one whom he knew before reaching his dressing-room in +New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BLACK HANNIBAL'S WHITE HEART + + + +Edith half led, half carried her sobbing sister to the parlor. Mrs. +Allen, no longer languid, and Laura from her exile, were already +there, and with dismayed faces drew near the sofa where Zell had been +placed. + +"What has happened?" asked Mrs. Allen tremblingly. + +Edith's self-control, now that her enemies were gone, gave way +utterly, and sinking on the floor, she swayed back and forth, sobbing +even more hysterically than Zell, and her mother and Laura, oppressed +with the sense of some new impending disaster, caught the contagion of +their bitter grief, and wept and wrung their hands also. + +The frightened maid stood in one door, with white questioning face, +and old gray-haired Hannibal in another, with streaming eyes of honest +sympathy. + +"Speak, speak, what is the matter?" almost shrieked Mrs. Allen. + +Edith could not speak, but Zell sobbed, "I--don't--know. Edith--seems +to have--gone--mad." + +At last, after the application of restoratives, Edith so far recovered +herself as to say brokenly: + +"We've been betrayed--they're--villains. They never--meant--marriage +at all." + +"That's false!" screamed Zell. "I won't believe it of my lover, +whatever may have been true of your mean little Gus Elliot. He +promised to marry me, and you have spoiled everything by your mad +folly. I'll never forgive you."--When Zell's wild fury would have +ceased, cannot be said, but a new voice startled and awed them into +silence. In the storm of sorrow and passion that raged within, the +outer storm had risen unnoted, but now an awful peal of thunder broke +over their heads and rolled away among the hills in deep +reverberations. Another and a louder crash soon followed, and a +solemn, expectant silence fell upon them akin to that when the noisy +passionate world will suddenly cease its clamor as the trump of God +proclaims the end. + +"Merciful heaven! we shall be struck," said Mrs. Allen shudderingly. + +"What's the use of living?" said Zell in a hard, reckless tone. + +"What is there to live for?" sighed Edith, deep in her heart. "There +are none to be trusted--not one." + +Instead of congratulations received with blushing happiness, and +solitaire engagement rings, thus is shown the first result of Mrs. +Allen's policy, and of society's injunction: + +"Keep your hands white, my dears." + +The storm passed away, and they crept off to such poor rest as they +could get, too miserable to speak, and too worn to renew the +threatened quarrel that a voice seemingly from heaven had interrupted. + +The next morning they gathered at a late breakfast-table with haggard +faces and swollen eyes. Zell looked hard and sullen, Edith's face was +so determined in its expression as to be stern. Mrs. Allen lamented +feebly and indefinitely, Laura only appeared more settled in her +apathy, and, like Zell and Edith, was utterly silent through the +forlorn meal. + +When it was over, Zell went up to her room and Edith followed her. +Zell had not spoken to her sister since the thunder peal had suddenly +checked her bitter words. Edith dreaded the alienation she saw in +Zell's face, and felt wronged by it, knowing that she had only acted +as truest friend and protector. But in order still to shield her +sister she must secure her confidence, or else the danger averted the +past evening would threaten as grimly as ever. She also realized how +essential Zell's help would be in the struggle for bread on which they +must enter, and wished to obtain her hearty co-operation in some plan +of work. She saw that labor now was inevitable, and must be commenced +immediately. From Laura little was to be hoped. She seemed so lacking +in mental and physical force since their troubles began, that it +appeared as if nothing could arouse her. She threatened soon to become +an invalid like her mother. The thought of help from the latter did +not even occur to her. + +Edith had not slept, and as the chaos and bitterness of the past +evening's experience passed away, her practical mind began to +concentrate itself on the problem of support. Her disappointment had +not been so severe as that of Zell, by any means, and so she was in a +condition to rally much sooner. She had never much more than liked +Elliot, and now the very thought of him was sickening, and though +labor and want might be hard indeed, and regret for all they had lost +keen, still she was spared the bitterer pain of a hopeless love. + +But it was just this that Zell feared, and though she repeated to +herself over and over again Van Dam's last words, "I will never give +you up," she feared that he would, or what would be equally painful, +she would be compelled to give him up, for she could not disguise from +herself that her confidence had been shaken. + +But sincere love is slow to believe evil of its object. If Van Dam had +shown preference for another, Zell's jealousy and anger would have +known no bounds, but this he had never done, and she could not bring +herself to believe that the man whom she had known, since childhood, +who had always treated her with uniform kindness and most flattering +attention, who had partaken of their hospitality so often and +intimately that he almost seemed like one of the family, meditated the +basest evil against her. + +"Gus Elliot is capable of any meanness, but Edith was mistaken about +my friend. And yet Edith has so insulted him that I fear he will never +come to the house again," she said with deep resentment. "If I had +declined a private marriage, I am sure he would have married me +openly." + +Therefore when Edith entered their little room Zell's face was +averted, and there was every evidence of estrangement. Edith meant to +be kind and considerate, and patiently show the reasons for her +action. + +She sat down and took her sister's cold, impassive hand, saying: + +"Zell, did I not help you dress in this very place last evening? Did I +not wait against my judgment till Mr. Van Dam came? These things prove +to you that I would not put a straw between you and a true lover. +Surely we have trouble enough without adding the bitter one of +division and estrangement. If we don't stand by each other now what +will become of us?" + +"What right had you to misjudge Mr. Van Dam by such a mean little +scamp as Gus Elliot? Why did you not give him a chance to explain +himself?" + +"O Zell, Zell, how can you be so blinded? Did he not ask you to go +away with him in the night--to elope, and then submit to a secret +marriage in New York?" + +"Well, he told me there were good reasons that made such a course +necessary at present." + +"Are you George Allen's daughter, that you could even listen to such a +proposal? When you lived on Fifth Avenue would he have dared to even +faintly suggest such a thing? Can he be a true lover who insults you +to begin with, and, in view of your misfortunes, instead of showing +manly delicacy and desire to shield, demands not only hard but +indecent conditions? Even if he purposed to marry you, what right has +he to require of you such indelicate action as would make your name a +byword and hissing among all your old acquaintances, and a lasting +stain to your family? They would not receive you with respect again, +though some might tolerate you and point you out as the girl so +desperate for a husband that she submitted to the grossest indignity +to get one." + +Zell hung her head in shame and anger under Edith's inexorable logic, +but the anger was now turning against Van Dam. Edith continued: + +"A lady should be sought and won. It is for her to set the place and +time of the wedding, and dictate the conditions. It is for her to say +who shall be present and who absent, and woman, to whom a spotless +name is everything, has the right, which even savage tribes recognize, +to shield herself from the faintest imputation of immodesty by +compelling her suitor to comply with the established custom and +etiquette which are her safeguards. The daughter of a poor laborer +would demand all this as a matter of course, and shall the beautiful +Zell Allen, who has had scores of admirers, have all this reversed in +her case, and be compelled to skulk away from the home in which she +should be openly married, to hunt up a man at night who has made the +pitiful promise that he will marry her somewhere at some time or +other, on condition that no one shall know it till he is ready? Mark +it well, the man who so insults a lady and all her family never means +to marry her, or else he is so coarse and brutal in all his instincts +that no decent woman ought to marry him." + +"Say no more," said Zell, in a low tone, "I fear you are right, though +I would rather die than believe it. Oh, Edith, Edith!" she cried in +sudden passionate grief. "My heart is broken. I loved him so! I could +have been so happy!" + +Edith took her in her arms and they cried together. At last Zell said +languidly; + +"What can we do?" + +"We must go to work like other poor people. If we had only done so at +first and saved every dollar we had left, we should not now be in our +present deeply embarrassed condition. And yet, Zell, if you, with your +vigor and strength, will only stand by me, and help your best, we will +see bright days yet There must be some way by which two girls can make +a livelihood here in Pushton as elsewhere. We have at least a shelter, +and I have great hopes of the garden." + +"I don't like a garden. I fear I couldn't do much there. And it seems +like man's work too. I fear I shall be too wretched and ignorant to do +anything." + +"Not at all. Youth, health, and time, against all the troubles of the +world." (This was the best creed poor Edith then had.) "Now," she +continued, encouragingly, "you like housework. Of course we must +dismiss our servants, and if you did the work of the house with Laura, +so that I had all my time for something else, it would be a great +saving and help." + +"Oh, dear! oh, dear! that we should ever come to this!" said Zell +despairingly. + +"We have come to it, and must face the truth." + +"Well, of course I'll try," said Zell with something of Laura's +apathy. Then with a sudden burst of passion she clenched her little +hands and cried: + +"I hate him, the cold-hearted wretch, to treat his poor little Zell so +shamefully!" and she paced up and down the room with inflamed eyes and +cheeks. Then in equally sudden revulsion she threw herself down on the +floor with her head in her sister's lap, and murmured, "God forgive +me, I love him still--I love him with my whole heart," and sobbed till +all her strength was gone. + +Edith sighed deeply. "Can she ever be depended on?" she thought. At +last she lifted the languid form on the bed, threw over her an afghan, +and bathed her head with cologne till the poor child fell asleep. + +Then she went down to Laura and her mother, to whom she explained more +fully the events of last evening. Laura only muttered, "shameful," but +Mrs. Allen whined, "She could not understand it. Girls didn't know how +to manage any longer. There must be some misunderstanding, for no +young men in the city could have meant to offer such an insult to an +old and respectable family like theirs. She never heard of such a +thing. If she could only have been present--" + +"Hush, mother," said Edith almost sternly. "It's all past now. I +should gladly believe that when you were a young lady such poor +villains were not in good society. Moreover, such offers are not made +to young ladies living on the avenue. This is more properly a case for +shooting than management. I have no patience to talk any more about +it. We must now try to conform to our altered circumstances, and at +least maintain our self-respect, and secure the comforts of life if +possible. But we must now practice the closest economy. Laura, you +will have to be mother's maid, for of course we can keep no servants. +I have a little money left, and will pay your maid to-day and let her +go." + +"I don't see how I can get along without her," said Mrs. Allen +helplessly. + +"You must," said Edith firmly. "We have no money to pay her any +longer, and your daughters will try to supply her place." + +Mrs. Allen did not formally abdicate her natural position as head of +the family, but in the hour of almost shipwreck Edith took the helm +out of the feeble hands. Yet the young girl had little to guide her, +no knowledge and experience worth mentioning, and the sea was rough +and beset with dangers. + +The maid had no regrets at departure, and went away with something of +the satisfaction of a rat leaving a sinking ship. But with old +Hannibal it was a different affair. + +"You ain't gwine to send me away too, is you, Miss Edie?" said he, +with the accent of dismay. + +"My good old friend," said Edith feelingly, "the only friend I'm sure +of in this great world full of people, I fear I must. We can't afford +to pay you even half what you are worth any longer." + +"I'se sure I doesn't eat sech a mighty lot," Hannibal sniffled out. + +"Oh, I hope we shan't reach starvation point," said Edith, smiling in +spite of her sore heart. "But, Hannibal, you are a valuable servant; +besides, there are plenty of rich upstarts who would give you anything +you would ask, just to have you come and give an old and aristocratic +air to their freshly-gilded mansions." + +"Miss Edie, you doesn't know nothin' 'tall about my feelin's. What's +money to ole Hannibal! I'se lived 'mong de millionaires and knows all +'bout money. It only buys half of 'em a heap of trouble and doesn't +keep dar hearts from gettin' sore. When Massa Allen was a livin', he +paid me big, and guv me all de money I wanted, and if he, at last, +lost my money which he keep, it's no mo'n he did wid his own. And now, +Miss Edie, I toted you and you'se sisters roun' on my shouler when you +was babies, and I hain't got nothin' left but you, no friends, no +nothin'; and if you send me away, it's like gwine out into de +wilderness. What 'ud I do in some strange man's big house, when my +heart's here in de little house? My heart is all ole Hannibal has +left, if 'tis black, and if you send me away you break it. I'd a heap +rader stay here in Bushtown and starve to death wid you alls, dan live +in de grandest house on de avenue." + +"Oh, Hannibal," said Edith, putting her hand on the old man's +shoulder, and looking at him with her large eyes dimmed with grateful +tears, "you don't know how much good you have done me. I have felt +that there were none to trust--not one, but you are as true as steel. +Your heart isn't black, as I told you before. It's whiter than mine. +Oh, that other men were like you!" + +"Bress you, Miss Edie, I isn't a man, I'se only a nigger." + +"You are my true and trusted friend," said Edith, "and you shall be +one of the family as long as you wish to stay with us." + +"Now bress you, Miss Edie, you'se an angel for sayin' dat. Don't be +afeard, I'se good for sumpen yet, if I be old. I once work for fear in +de South; den I work for money, and now I'se gwine to work for lub, +and it 'pears I can feel my ole jints limber up at de tought. It +'pears like dat lub is de only ting dat can make one young agin. Neber +you fear, Miss Edie, we'll pull trough, and I'se see you a grand lady +yet. A true lady you'se allers be, even if you went out to scrub." + +"Perhaps I'll have to, Hannibal. I know how to do that about as well +as anything else that people are willing to pay for." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CHANGES OF TWO SHORT MONTHS + + + +At the dinner-table it was reluctantly admitted to be necessary that +Edith should go to the city in the morning and dispose of some of +their jewelry. She went by the early train, and the familiar aspects +of Fourth Avenue as she rode down town were as painful as the features +of an old friend turned away from us in estrangement. She kept her +face closely veiled, hoping to meet no acquaintances, but some whom +she knew unwittingly brushed against her. Her mother's last words +were: + +"Go to some store where we are not known to sell the jewelry." + +Edith's usually good judgment seemed to fail her in this case, as +generally happens when we listen to the suggestions of false pride. +She went to a jeweller downtown who was an utter stranger. The man's +face to whom she handed her valuables for inspection did not suggest +pure gold that had passed through the refiner's fire, though he +professed to deal in that article. An unknown lady, closely veiled, +offering such rich articles for sale, looked suspicious; but, whether +it was right or wrong, there was a chance for him to make an +extraordinary profit. Giving a curious glance at Edith, who began to +have misgivings from the manner and appearance of the man, he swept +the little cases up and took them to the back part of the store, on +pretence of wishing to consult his partner. He soon returned and said +rather harshly: + +"I don't quite understand this matter, and we are not in the habit of +doing this kind of business. It may be all right that you should offer +this jewelry, and it may not. If we take it, we must run the risk. We +will give you"--offering scarcely half its value. + +"I assure you it is all right," said Edith indignantly, at the same +time with a sickening sensation of fear. "It all belongs to us, but we +are compelled to part with it from sudden need." + +"That is about the way they all talk," said the man coolly. "We will +give you no more than I said." + +"Then give me back my jewelry," said Edith, scarcely able to stand, +through fear and shame. + +"I don't know about that. Perhaps I ought to call in an officer any +way and have the thing investigated. But I give you your choice, +either to take this money, or go with a policeman before a justice and +have the thing explained," and he laid the money before her. + +She shuddered at the thought. Edith Allen in a police court, +explaining why she was selling her jewelry, the gifts of her dead +father, followed by a rabble in the street, her name in the papers, +and she the town-talk and scandal of her old set on the avenue! How +Gus Elliot and Van Dam would exult! All passed through her mind in one +dreadful whirl. She snatched up the money and rushed out with one +thought of escape, and for some time after had a shuddering +apprehension of being pursued and arrested. + +"Oh, if I had only gone to Tiffany's, where I am known!" she groaned. +"It's all mother's work. Her advice is always fatal, and I will never +follow it again. It seems as if everything and everybody were against +me," and she plunged into the sheltering throng of Broadway, glad to +be a mere unrecognized drop in its mighty tide. + +But even as Edith passed out of the jeweller's store her eye rested +for a moment on the face of a man whom she thought she had seen +before, though she could not tell where, and the face haunted her, +causing much uneasiness. + +"Could he have seen and known me?" she queried most anxiously. + +He had done both. He was no other than Tom Crowl, a clerk in the +village at one of the lesser dry-goods stores, where the Allens had a +small account. He was one of the mean loafers who were present at the +bar-room scene, and had cheered, and then kicked Gus Elliot, and "laid +for him" in the evening with the "boys." He was one of the upper +graduates of Pushton street-corners, and having spent an idle, vicious +boyhood, truant half the time from school, had now arrived at the +dignity of clerk in a store, that thrived feebly on the scattering +trade that filtered through and past Mr. Hard's larger establishment. +He was one of the worst phases of the male gossip, and had the scent +of a buzzard for the carrion of scandal. The Allens were now the +uppermost theme of the village, for there seemed some mystery about +them. Moreover, the rural dabblers in vice had a natural jealousy of +the more accomplished rakes from the city, which took on something of +the air of virtuous indignation against them. Of course the talk about +Gus and Van Dam included the Allens; and if poor Edith could have +heard the surmises about them in the select coterie of clerks that +gathered after closing hours around Crowl, as the central fountain of +gossip, she would have felt more bitterly than ever that the spirit of +chivalry had utterly forsaken mankind. + +When therefore young Crowl saw Edith get on the same train as himself, +he determined to watch her, and startle, if possible, his small squad +of admirers with a new proof of his right to lead as chief scandal-monger. The scene in the jewelry store thus became a brilliant stroke +of fortune to him, though so severe a blow to Edith. (The number of +people who are like wolves, that turn upon and devour one of their +kind when wounded, is not small.) Crowl exultingly saw himself doubly +the hero of the evening in the little room of the loft over the store, +where poor Edith would be discussed that evening over a black bottle +and sundry clay pipes. + +As Edith returned up town toward the depot, the impulse to go and see +her old home was very strong. She thought her veil sufficient +protection to allow her to venture. Slowly and with heavy step she +passed up the well-known street on the opposite side, and then crossed +and passed down toward that door from which she had so often tripped +in light-hearted gayety, or rolled away in a liveried carriage, the +envied and courted daughter of a millionaire. And to-day she was +selling her jewelry for bread--to-day she had narrowly, as she +thought, escaped the police court--to-day she had no other prospect of +support save her unskilled hands, and little more than two short +months ago, that house was ablaze with light, resounding with mirth +and music, and she and her sisters were known as among the wealthiest +belles of the city. It was like a horrid dream. It seemed as if she +might see old Hannibal opening the door, and Zell come tripping out, +or Laura at the window of her room with a book, or the portly form of +her father returning from business, indeed even herself, radiant with +pride and pleasure, starting for an afternoon walk as of old. All +seemed to look the same. Why was it not? Why could she not enter and +be at home! Again she passed. A name on the door caught her eye. With +a shudder of disgust and pain, she read-- + +"Uriah Fox." + +"So the villain lives in the home of which he robbed us," she said +bitterly. "The world seems made for such. Old Hannibal was right. God +lumps the world, but the devil seems to look after his friends and +prosper them." + +She now hastened to the depot. The city had lost its attractions to +her, in view of what she had seen and suffered that day, and though +inclined to feel hard and resentful at her fate, she was sincerely +thankful that she had a quiet home in the country from which at least +the false-hearted and cruel could be kept away. + +She saw during the day several faces that she knew, but none +recognized her, and she realized how soon we are forgotten by our wide +circle of friends, and how the world goes on just the same after we +have vacated the large space we suppose we occupy. + +She reached home in the twilight, weary and despondent. Her mother +asked eagerly: + +"Did you meet any one you knew?" as if this were the all-important +question. + +"Don't speak to me," said Edith impatiently. "I'm half dead with +fatigue and trouble. Hannibal, please give me a cup of tea, and then I +will go to bed." + +"But, Edith," persisted Mrs. Allen querulously, "did you see any of +our old set? I hope you didn't take the jewelry where you were known." + +Edith's overtaxed nerves gave way, and she said sharply-- + +"No, I did not go where I was known, as I ought, and therefore have +been robbed, and might have been in jail myself to-night. I will never +follow your advice again. It has brought nothing but trouble and +disaster. I have had enough of your silly pride and its results. What +practical harm would it have done me, if I had met all the persons I +know in the city? By going where I was not known I lost half my +jewelry, and was insulted and threatened with great danger in the +bargain. If I had gone to Tiffany's, or Ball and Black's, where I am +known, I should have been treated politely and obtained the full value +of what I offered. I can't even forgive myself for being such a fool. +But I have done with your ridiculous false pride forever." + +These were harsh words for a daughter to speak to her mother, under +any provocation, and even Zell said: + +"Edith, you ought to be ashamed of yourself to speak to mother so." + +"I think so, too," said Laura. "I'm sure she meant everything for the +best, and she took the course which is taken by the majority in like +circumstances." + +"All the worse for the majority then, if they fare anything as we have +done. The division of labor in this family seems to be that I am to do +all the work, and bear the brunt of everything, and the rest sit by +and criticise, or make more trouble. You have all got to do something +now or go hungry," and Edith swallowed her tea, and went frowningly +away to her room. She was no saint, to begin with, and her overtaxed +mind and body revenged themselves in nervous irritation. But her young +and healthful nature soon found in sound sleep the needed restorative. + +Mrs. Allen shed a few helpless tears, and Laura wearily watched the +faint flicker on the hearth, for the night was chilly. Zell went into +the dining-room and read for the twentieth time a letter received that +day. + +Unknown to Edith, the worst disaster yet had occurred in her absence. +Zell had been to the village for the mail. She would not admit, even +to herself, that she hoped for a letter from one who had acted so poor +a part as her false lover, and yet, controlled so much more by her +feelings and impulses than by either reason or principle, it was with +a thrill of joy that she recognized the familiar handwriting. The next +moment she dropped her veil to conceal her burning blush of shame. She +hastened home with a wild tumult at heart. + +"I will read it, and see what he says for himself," she said, "and +then will write a withering answer." + +But as Van Dam's ardent words and plausible excuses burned themselves +into her memory, her weak foolish heart relented, and she half +believed he was wronged by Edith after all. The withering answer +became a queer jumble of tender reproaches and pathetic appeals, and +ended by saying that if he would marry her in her own home it all +might be as secret as he desired, and she would wait his convenience +for acknowledgment. + +She also did another wrong and imprudent thing; for she told him to +direct his reply to another office about a mile from Pushton, for she +dreaded Edith's anger should her correspondence be discovered. + +The wily, unscrupulous man gave one of his satantic leers as he read +the letter. + +"The game will soon be mine," he chuckled, and he wrote promptly in +return: + +"In your request and reproaches, I see the influence of another mind. +Left to yourself you would not doubt me. And yet such is my love for +you, I would comply with your request were it not for what passed that +fatal evening. My feelings and honor as a man forbid my ever meeting +your sister again till she has apologized. She never liked me, and +always wronged me with doubts. Elliot acted like a fool and a villain, +and I have nothing more to do with him. But your sister, in her anger +and excitement, classed me with him. When you have been my loved and +trusted wife for some length of time, I hope your family will do me +justice. When you are here with me you will soon see why our marriage +must be private for the present. You have known me since you were a +child. I will be true to my word and will do exactly as I agreed. I +will meet you any evening you wish on the down boat. Awaiting your +reply with an anxiety which only the deepest love can inspire, I +remain, + +"Your slave, GUILLIAM VAN DAM." + +Such was the false but plausible missive that was aimed as an arrow at +poor little Zell. There was nothing in her training or education, and +little in her character, to shield her. Moreover the increasing +miseries of their situation were Van Dam's allies. + +Edith rose the next morning greatly refreshed, and her naturally +courageous nature rallied to meet the difficulties of their position. +But in her strength, as was too often the case, she made too little +allowance for the weakness of the others. She took the reins in her +hand in a masterful and not merciful way, and dictated to the rest in +a manner that they secretly resented. + +The store wagon was a little earlier than usual that morning, and a +note from Mr. Hard was handed in, stating that he had payments to make +that day and would therefore request that his little account might be +met. Two or three other persons brought up bills from the village, +saying that for some reason or another the money was greatly needed. +Tom Crowl's gossip was doing its legitimate work. + +In the post-office Edith found all the other accounts against the +family, with requests for payment, polite enough, but pressing. + +She resolved to pay all she could, and went first to Mr. Hard's, That +worthy citizen's eyes grew less stony as he saw half the amount of his +bill on the counter. The rumor of Edith's visit to the city had +reached even him, and he had his fears that collecting might involve +some unpleasant business; but, however unpleasant it might be, Mr. +Hard always collected. + +"I hope our method of dealing has satisfied you. Miss Allen," he +ventured politely. + +"Oh, yes," said Edith dryly, "you have been very liberal and prompt +with everything, especially your bill." + +At this Mr. Hard's eyes grew quite pebbly, and he muttered something +about its being the rule to settle monthly. + +"Oh, certainly," said Edith, "and like most rules, no doubt, has many +exceptions. Good-morning." + +She also paid something on the other bills, and found that she had but +a few dollars left. Though there was a certain sense of relief in the +feeling that she now owed much less, still she looked with dismay on +the small sum remaining. Where was more to come from? She had +determined that she would not go to New York again to sell anything +except in the direst extremity. + +That evening Hannibal gave them a meagre supper, for Edith had told +him of the absolute necessity of economy. There was a little grumbling +over the fare. So Edith pushed her chair back, laid seven dollars on +the table, saying: + +"That's all the money I have in the world. Who's got any more?" + +They raised ten dollars among them. + +"Now," said Edith, "this is all we have. Where is more coming from?" + +Helpless sighs and silence were her only answers. + +"There is nothing clearer in the world," continued Edith, "than that +we must earn money. What can we do?" + +"I never thought I should have to work," said Laura piteously. + +"But, my dear sister," said Edith earnestly, "isn't it clear to you +now that you must? You certainly don't expect me to earn enough to +support you all. One pair of hands can't do it, and it wouldn't be +fair in the bargain." + +"Oh, certainly not," said Laura. "I will do anything you say as well +as I can, though, for the life of me, I don't see what I can do." + +"Nor I either," said Zell passionately. "I don't know how to work. I +never did anything useful in my life that I know of. What right have +parents to bring up girls in this way, unless they make it a perfect +certainty that they will always be rich? Here we are as helpless as +four children. We have not got enough to keep us from starving more +than a week at best. Just to think of it! Men are speculating and +risking all they have every day. Ever since I was a child I have heard +about the risks of business. I knew some people whose fathers failed, +and they went away, I don't know where, to suffer as we have perhaps, +and yet girls are not taught to do a single thing by which they can +earn a penny if they need to. If anybody will pay me for jabbering a +little bad French and Italian, and strumming a few operatic airs on +the piano, I am at their service. I think I also understand dressing, +flirting, and receiving compliments very well. I had a taste for these +things, and never had any special motive given me for doing anything +else. What becomes of all the girls thus taught to be helpless, and +then tossed out into the world to sink or swim?" + +"They find some self-sustaining work in it," said Edith. + +"Not all of them, I guess," muttered Zell sullenly. + +"Then they do worse, and had better starve," said Edith sternly. + +"You don't know anything about starving," retorted Zell, bitterly. "I +repeat, it's a burning shame to bring girls up so that they don't know +how to do anything, if there's ever any possibility that they must. +And it's a worse shame that respect and encouragement are not given to +girls who earn a living. Mother says that if we become working girls, +not one of our old wealthy, fashionable set will have anything to do +with us. What makes people act so silly? Any one of them on the avenue +may be where we are in a year. I've no patience with the ways of the +world. People don't help each other to be good, and don't help others +up. Grown-up folks act like children. How parents can look forward to +the barest chance of their children being poor, and bring them up as +we were, I don't see. I'm no more fit to be poor than to be +President." + +Zell never before had said a word that reflected on her father, but in +the light of events her criticism seemed so Just that no one reproved +her. + +Mrs. Allen only sighed over her part of the implied blame. She had +reached the hopeless stage of one lost in a foreign land, where the +language is unknown and every sight and sound unfamiliar and +bewildering. This weak fashionable woman, the costly product of an +artificial luxurious life, seemed capable of being little better than +a millstone around the necks of her children in this hour of their +need. If there had been some innate strength and nobility in Mrs. +Allen's character it might have developed now into something worthy of +respect under this sharp attrition of trouble, however perverted +before. But where a precious stone will take lustre a pumice stone +will crumble. There is a multitude of natures so weak to begin with +that they need tonic treatment all through life. What must such become +under the influence of enervating luxury, flattery, and uncurbed +selfishness from childhood? Poor, faded, sighing, helpless Mrs. Allen, +shivering before the trouble she had largely occasioned, is the +answer. + +Edith soon broke the forlorn silence that followed Zell's outburst by +saying: + +"All the blame doesn't rest on the parents. I might have improved my +advantages far better. I might have so mastered the mere rudiments of +an English education as to be able to teach little children, but I can +scarcely remember a single thing now." + +"I can remember one thing," interrupted Zell, who was fresh from her +books, "that there was mighty little attention given to the rudiments, +as you call them, in the fashionable schools to which I went. To give +the outward airs and graces of a fine lady seemed their whole aim. +Accomplishments, deportment were everything. The way I was hustled +over the rudiments almost takes away my breath to remember, and I have +as remote an idea of vulgar fractions as of how to do the vulgar work +before us. I tell you the whole thing is a cruel farce. If girls are +educated like butterflies, it ought to be made certain that they can +live like butterflies." + +"Well, then," continued Edith, "we ought to have perfected ourselves +in some accomplishment. They are always in demand. See what some +French and music teachers obtain." + +"Nonsense," said Zell pettishly, "you know well enough that by the +time we were sixteen our heads were so full of beaux, parties, and +dress, that French and music were a bore. We went through the +fashionable mills like the rest, and if father had continued worth a +million or so, no one would have found fault with our education." + +"We can't help the past now," said Edith after a moment, "but I am not +so old yet but that I can choose some kind of work and so thoroughly +master it that I can get the highest price paid for that form of +labor. I wish it could be gardening, for I have no taste for the shut-up work of woman; sitting in a close room all day with a needle would +be slow suicide to me." + +"Gardening!" said Zell contemptuously. "You couldn't plow as well as +that snuffy old fellow who scratched your garden about as deeply as a +hen would have done it. A woman can't dig and hoe in the hot sun, that +is, an American girl can't, and I don't think she ought." + +"Nor I either," said Mrs. Allen, with some returning vitality. "The +very idea is horrid." + +"But plowing, digging, and hoeing are not all of gardening," said +Edith with some irritation. + +"I guess you would make a slim support by just snipping around among +the rose-bushes," retorted Zell provokingly. + +"That's always the way with you, Zell," said Edith sharply, "from one +extreme to another. Well, what would you like to do?" + +"If I had to work I would like housekeeping. That admits of great +variety and activity. I wish I could open a summer boarding-house up +here. Wouldn't I make it attractive!" + +"Such black eyes and red cheeks certainly would--to the gentlemen," +answered Edith satirically. + +"They would be mere accessories. I think I could give to a boarding-house, that place of hash and harrowing discomfort, a dainty, homelike +air. If father, when he risked a failure, had only put aside enough to +set me up in a boarding-house, I should have been made." + +"A boarding-house! What horror next?" sighed Mrs. Allen. + +"Don't be alarmed, mother," said Zell bitterly. "We can scarcely start +one of the forlornest hash species on ten dollars. I admit I would +rather keep house for a good husband, and it seems to me I could soon +learn to give him the perfection of a good home," and her eyes filled +with wistful tears. Dashing them scornfully away, she added, "The idea +of a woman loving a man, and letting his home be dependent on the +cruel mercies of foreign servants! If it's a shame that girls are not +taught to make a living if they need to, it's a worse shame that they +are not taught to keep house. Half the brides I know of ought to have +been arrested and imprisoned for obtaining property on false +pretences. They had inveigled men into the vain expectation that they +would make a home for them, when they no more knew how to make a home +than a heaven. The best they can do is to go to one of those places so +satirically called an 'intelligence office,' and import them into +their elegant houses a small mob of quarrelsome, drunken, dishonest +foreigners, and then they and their husbands live on such conditions +as are permitted. I would be mistress of my house, just as a man is +master of his store or office, and I would know thoroughly how work of +all kinds was done, and see that it was done thoroughly. If they +wouldn't do it, I'd discharge them. I am satisfied that our bad +servants are the result of bad housekeepers more than anything else." + +"Poor little Zell!" said Edith, smiling sadly. "I hope you will have a +chance to put your theories into most happy and successful practice." + +"Little chance of it here in 'Bushtown,' as Hannibal calls it," said +Zell suddenly. + +"Well," said Edith, in a kind of desperate tone, "we've got to decide +on something at once. I will suggest this. Laura must take care of +mother, and teach a few little children if she can get them. We will +give up the parlor to her at certain hours. I will put up a notice in +the post-office asking for such patronage, and perhaps we can put an +advertisement in the Pushton Recorder, if it doesn't cost too much. +Zell, you must take the housekeeping mainly, for which you have a +taste, and help me with any sewing that I can get. Hannibal will go +into the garden and I will help him there all I can. I shall go to the +village to-morrow and see if I can find anything to do that will bring +in money." + +There was a silent acquiescence in Edith's plan, for no one had +anything else to offer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IGNORANCE LOOKING FOR WORK + + + +The next day Edith went to the village, and frankly told Mr. Hard how +they were situated, mentioning that the failure of their lawyer to +sell the stock had suddenly placed them in this crippled condition. + +Mr. Hard's eyes grew more pebbly as he listened. He ventured in a +constrained voice as consolation: + +"That he never had much faith in stocks--No, he had no employment for +ladies in connection with his store. He simply bought and sold at a +_small_ advance. Miss Klip, the dressmaker, might have something." + +To Miss Klip Edith went. Miss Klip, although an unprotected female, +appeared to be a maiden that could take care of herself. One would +scarcely venture to hinder her. Her cutting scissors seemed instinct +with life, and one would get out of their way as naturally as from a +railroad train. She gave Edith a sharp look through her spectacles and +said abruptly in answer to her application: + +"I thought you was rich." + +"We were," said Edith sadly, "but we must work now and are willing +to." + +"What do you know about dressmaking and sewing?" + +"Well, not a great deal, but I think you would find us very ready to +learn." + +"Oh, bless you, I can get all my work done by thorough hands, and at +my own prices, too. Good-morning." + +"But can you not tell me of some one who would be apt to have work?" + +"There's Mrs. Glibe across the street. She has work sometimes. Most of +the dressmakers around here are well trained, have machines, and go +out by the day." + +Edith's heart sank. What chance was there for her untaught hands among +all these "trained workers." + +She soon found that Mrs. Glibe was more inclined to talk (being as +garrulous as Miss Klip was laconic) and to find out all about them +than to help her to work. Making but little headway in Edith's +confidence she at last said, "I give Rose Lacey all the work I have to +spare and it isn't very much. The business is so cut up that none of +us have much more than we can do except a short time in the busy +season. Still, those of us who can give a nice fit and cut to +advantage can make a good living after getting known. It takes time +and training you know of course." + +"But isn't there work of any kind that we can get in this place?" said +Edith impatiently. + +"Well, not that you' d be willing to do. Of course there's +housecleaning and washing and some plain sewing, though that is mostly +done on a machine. A good strong woman can always get day's work, +except in winter, but you ain't one of that sort," she added, looking +at Edith's delicate pink and white complexion and little white hands +in which a scrubbing-brush would look incongruous. + +"Isn't there any demand for fancy work?" asked Edith. + +"Mighty little. People buy such things in the city. Money ain't so +plenty in the country that people will spend much on that kind of +thing. The ladies themselves make it at home and when they go out to +tea." + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Edith, as she plodded wearily homeward, "what can +we do? Ignorance is as bad as crime." + +Her main hope now for immediate necessities was that they might get +some scholars. She had put up a notice in the post-office and an +advertisement in the paper. She had also purchased some rudimentary +school books, and the poor child, on her return home, soon distracted +herself by a sudden plunge into vulgar fractions. She found herself so +sadly rusty that she would have to study almost as hard as any of her +pupils, were they obtained. Laura's bookish turn and better memory had +kept her better informed. Edith soon threw aside grammars and +arithmetics, saying to Laura: + +"You must take care of the school, if we get one. It would take me too +long to prepare on these things in our emergency." + +Almost desperate from the feeling that there was nothing she could do, +she took a hoe that was by no means light, and loosened the ground and +cut off all the sprouting weeds around her strawberry-vines. The day +was rather cool and cloudy, and she was surprised at the space she +went over. She wore her broad-brimmed straw hat tied down over her +face, and determined she would not look at the road, and would act as +if it were not there, letting people think what they pleased. But a +familiar rumble and rattle caused her to look shyly up after the wagon +had passed, and she saw Arden Lacey gazing wonderingly back at her. +She dropped her eyes instantly as if she had not seen him, and went on +with her work. At last, thoroughly wearied, she went in and said half +triumphantly, half defiantly: + +"A woman can hoe. I've done it myself." + +"A woman _can_ ride a horse like a man," said Mrs. Allen, and this was +all the home encouragement poor Edith received. + +They had had but a light lunch at one o'clock, meaning to have a more +substantial dinner at six. Hannibal was showing Zell and getting her +started in her department. It was but a poor little dinner they had, +and Zell said in place of dessert: + +"Edith, we are most out of everything." + +"And I can't get any work," said Edith despondingly. "People have got +to know how to do things before anybody wants them, and we haven't +time to learn." + +"Ten dollars won't last long," said Zell recklessly. + +"I will go down to the village and make further inquiries to-morrow," +Edith continued in a weary tone. "It seems strange how people stand +aloof from us. No one calls and everybody wants what we owe them right +away. Are there not any good kind people in Pushton? I wish we had not +offended the Laceys. They might have advised and helped us, but +nothing would tempt me to go to them after treating them as we did." + +There were plenty of good kind people in Pushton, but Mrs. Allen's +"policy" had driven them away as far as possible. By their course the +Allens had placed themselves, in relation to all classes, in the most +unapproachable position, and their "friends" from the city and Tom +Crowl's gossip had made matters far worse. Poor Edith thought they +were utterly ignored. She would have felt worse if she had known that +every one was talking about them. + +The next day Edith started on another unsuccessful expedition to the +village, and while she was gone, Zell went to the post-office to which +she had told Van Dam to direct his reply. She found the plausible lie +we have already placed before the reader. + +At first she experienced a sensation of anger that he had not complied +with her wish. It was a new experience to have gentlemen, especially +Van Dam, so long her obsequious slave, think of anything contrary to +her wishes. She also feared that Edith might be right, and that Van +Dam designed evil against her. She would not openly admit, even to +herself, that this was his purpose, and yet Edith's words had been so +clear and strong, and Van Dam's conditions placed her so entirely at +his mercy, that she shrank from him and was fascinated at the same +time. + +But instead of indignantly casting the letter from her, she read it +again and again. Her foolish heart pleaded for him. + +"He couldn't be so false to me, so false to his written word," she +said, and the letter was hidden away, and she passed into the +dangerous stage of irresolution, where temptation is secretly dwelt +upon. She hesitated, and, according to the proverb, the woman who does +this is lost. Instead of indignantly casting temptation from her, she +left her course open, to be decided somewhat by circumstances. She +wilfully shut her eyes to the danger, and tried to believe, and did +almost believe that her lover meant honestly by her. + +And so the days passed, Edith vainly trying to find something to do, +and working hard in her garden, which as yet brought no return. She +was often very sad and despondent, and again very irritable. Laura's +apathy only deepened, and she seemed like one not yet awakened from a +dream of the past. Zell made some show of work, but after all left +almost everything for Hannibal as before, and when Edith sharply +chided her, she laughed recklessly and said: + +"What's the use? If we are going to starve we might as well do so at +once and have it over with." + +"I won't starve," said Edith, almost fiercely. "There must be honest +work somewhere in the world for one willing to do it, and I'm going to +find it. At any rate, can raise food in my garden before long." + +"I'm afraid we shall starve before your cabbages and carrots come to +maturity, and we might as well as to try to live on such garbage. +Supplies are running low, and, as you say, the money is nearly gone." + +"Yes, and people won't trust us any more. Two or three declined to in +the village to-day, and I felt too discouraged and ashamed to ask any +further. For some reason people seem afraid of us. I see persons turn +and look after me, and yet they avoid me. Two or three impudent clerks +tried to make my acquaintance, but I snubbed them in such a way that +they will let me alone hereafter. I wonder if any stories could have +got around about us? Country towns are such places for gossip." + +"Have you heard of any scholars?" said Laura languidly. + +"No, not one," was Edith's despondent answer. "If nothing turns up +before, I'll go to New York next Monday and sell some more things, and +I'll go where I'm known this time." + +Nothing turned up, and by Sunday they had nothing in the house save a +little dry bread, which they ate moistened with wine and water. Mrs. +Allen sighed and cried all day. Laura had the strange manner of one +awaking up to something unrealized before. Restlessness began to take +the place of apathy, and her eyes often sought the face of Edith in a +questioning manner. Finding her alone in the garden, she said: + +"Why, Edith, I'm hungry. I never remember being hungry before. Is it +possible we have come to this?" + +Edith burst into tears, and said brokenly: + +"Come with me to the arbor." + +"I'm sure I'm willing to do anything," said Laura piteously, "but I +never realized we would come to this." + +"Oh! how can the birds sing?" said Edith bitterly. "This beautiful +spring weather, with its promise and hopefulness, seems a mockery. The +sun is shining brightly, flowers are budding and blooming, and all the +world seems so happy, but my heart aches as if it would burst. I'm +hungry, too, and I know poor old Hannibal is faint, though he tries to +keep up whenever I am around." + +"But, Edith, if people knew how we are situated they would not let us +want. Our old acquaintances in New York, or our relations even, though +not very friendly, would surely help us." + +"Oh, yes, I suppose so for a little while, but I can't bring myself to +ask for charity, and no one would under take to support us. What +discourages me most is that I can't get work that will bring in money. +Between people wishing to have nothing to do with us, on one hand, and +my ignorance on the other, there seems no resource. Some of those whom +we owe seem inclined to press us. I'm so afraid of losing this place +and being out on the street. If I could only get a chance somewhere, +or get time to learn to do something well!" + +Then after a moment she asked suddenly, "Where's Zell?" + +"In her room, I think" + +"I don't like Zell's manner," said Edith, after a brief painful +revery. "It's so hard and reckless. Something seems to be on her mind. +She has long fits of abstraction as if she were thinking of something, +or weighing some plan. Could she have had any communication with that +villain Van Dam? Oh! that would be the bitterest drop of all in our +cup of sorrow. I would rather see her dead than that." + +"Oh, dear!" said Laura, "it seems as if I had been in a trance and had +just awakened. Why, Edith, I must do something. It is not right to let +you bear all these things alone. But don't trouble about Zell, not one +of George Allen's daughters will sink to that." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A FALLING STAR + + + +Zell slept most of the day. She had reached that point where she did +not want to think. On hearing Edith say that she would go to New York +on Monday, a sadden and strong temptation assailed her. Impulsive, but +not courageous, abounding in energy, but having little fortitude, she +found the conditions of her country life growing unendurable. Van Dam +seemed her only refuge, her only means of escape. She soon lost all +hope of their sustaining themselves by work in Pushton. Her uncurbed +nature could wait patiently for nothing, and as the long, idle days +passed, she doubted, and then despaired, of any success from Edith's +plans. She harbored Van Dam's temptation, and the consciousness of +doing this hurt her womanly nature, and her hard, reckless tone and +manner were the natural consequence. She said to herself, and tried to +believe-- + +"He will marry me--he has promised again and again." + +Still, there was the uneasy knowledge that she was placing herself and +her reputation entirely at his mercy, and she long had known that Van +Dam was no saint. It was this lurking knowledge, shut her eyes to it +as she might, that acted on her nature like a petrifying influence. + +And yet, Van Dam's temptation had more to contend with in her pride +than in her moral nature. Everything in her education had tended to +increase the former, and dwarf the latter. Her parents had taken her +to the theatre far oftener than even to the fashionable church on the +avenue. From the latter she carried away more ideas about dress than +about anything else. From a child she had been familiar with the +French school of morals, as taught by the sensational drama in New +York. Society, that will turn a poor girl out of doors the moment she +sins, will take her at the most critical age of her unformed +character, night after night, to witness plays in which the husband is +made ridiculous, but the man who destroys purity and home-happiness is +as splendid a villain as Milton's Satan. Mr. Allen himself had +familiarized Zell's mind with just what she was tempted to do, by +taking her to plays as poisonous to the soul as the malaria of the +Campagna at Rome to the body. He, though dead, had a part in the +present temptation of his child, and we unhesitatingly charge many +parents with the absolute ruin of their children, by exposing them, +and permitting them to be exposed, to influences that they know must +be fatal. No guardian of a child can plead the densest stupidity for +not knowing that French novels and plays are as demoralizing as the +devil could wish them to be; and constantly to place young, passionate +natures, just awakening in their uncurbed strength, under such +influences, and expect them to remain as spotless as snow, is the most +wretched absurdity of our day. Society brings fire to the tow, the +brand to the powder, and then lifts its hand to hurl its anathema in +case they ignite. + +But Mr. Allen sinned even more grievously in permitting a man like Van +Dam to haunt his home. If now one of the lambs of his flock suffered +irretrievably, he would be as much to blame as a shepherd who daily +saw the wolf within his fold. Mr. Allen was familiar with the stories +about Van Dam, as multitudes of wealthy men are to-day with the +character of well-dressed scoundrels who visit their daughters. Some +of the worst villains in existence have the _entree_ into the "best +society." It is pretty well known among men what they are, and +fashionable mammas are not wholly in the dark. Therefore, every day, +"angels that kept not their first estate" are falling from heaven. It +may not be the open, disgraceful ruin that threatened poor Zell, but +it is ruin nevertheless. + +After all, it was the undermining, unhallowed influence of long +association with Van Dam that now made Zell so weak in her first sharp +stress of temptation. Crime was not awful and repulsive to her. There +was little in her cunningly-perverted nature that revolted at it. She +hesitated mainly on the ground of her pride, and in view of the +consequences. And even these latter she in no sense realized, for the +school in which she had been taught showed only the flowery opening of +the path into sin, while its terrible retributions were kept hidden. + +Therefore, as the miseries of her condition in the country increased, +Zell's pride failed her, and she began to be willing to risk all to +get away, and when she felt the pinch of hunger she became almost +desperate. As we have said, on Edith's naming a day on which she would +be absent on the forlorn mission that would only put off the day of +utter want a little longer, the temptation took definite shape in +Zell's mind to write at once to Van Dam, acceding to his shameful +conditions. + +But, to satisfy her conscience, which she could not stifle, and to +provide some excuse for her action, and still more, to brace the hope +she tried to cherish that he really meant truly by her, she wrote: + +"If I will meet you at the boat Monday evening, will you surely marry +me? Promise me on your sacred honor." + +Van Dam muttered, with a low laugh, as he read the note: + +"That's a rich joke, for her to accept such a proposition as mine, +especially after all that has happened, and still prate of 'sacred +honor.'" + +But he unhesitatingly, promptly, and with many protestations assured +her that he would, and at once prepared to carry out his part of the +programme. + +"What's the use of half-way lies?" he said, carelessly. + +On Monday Edith again took the early train with the valuables of which +she designed to dispose. Zell had said indifferently: + +"You may take anything I have left except my watch and chain." + +But Laura had insisted on sending her watch, saying, "I really wish to +do something, Edith. I've left all the burden on you too long." + +Mrs. Allen sighed, and said, "Take any thing you please." + +So Edith carried away with her the means of fighting the wolf, hunger, +from their doors a little longer. But if she had known that a more +cruel enemy would despoil her home in her absence, she would rather +have starved than gone. + +Laura was reading to her mother when Zell put her head in at the door, +saying: + +"I am going for a short walk, and will be back soon." + +She hastened to the office at which she had told Van Dam to address +her, and found his reply. With feverish cheeks, and eyes in which +glowed excitement rather than happiness, she read it as soon as she +was alone on the road, and returned as quickly as possible. Her mind +was in a wild tumult, but she would not allow herself one rational +thought. She spent most of the day in her room preparing for her +flight. But when she came down to see Hannibal about their meagre +lunch, he said in some surprise and alarm: + +"Oh, Miss Zell, how burnin' red your cheeks be! You'se got a ragin' +feber, sure 'nuff. Go and lie right straight down, and I'se see to +eberyting. I'se been to de willage and got some tea. A man guv it to +me as a sample, and I telled him we'se like our tea mighty strong, so +you'se all hab a cup of tea to-day, and to-night Miss Edie'll come +back wid a heap of money." + +"Poor old Hannibal!" said Zell, with a sudden rush of tenderness. "I +wish I were as good as you are." + +"Lor bress you, Miss Zell, I isn't good. I'se kind of a heathen. But +somehow I feels dat de Lord will bress me when I steals for you alls." + +"Oh, Hannibal, I wish I was dead and out of the way! Then there would +be one less to provide for." + +"Dead and out of de way!" said Hannibal, half indignantly; "dat's jest +how to get into de way. I'd be afeard of seein' your spook whenever I +was alone. I had no comfort in New York arter Massa Allen died, and +was mighty glad to get away even to Bushtown. And den Miss Edie and +all would cry dar eyes out, and couldn't do nothin'. Folks is often +more in de way arter dey's dead and gone dan when livin'. Seein' your +sweet face around ebery day, honey, is a great help to ole Hannibal. +It seems only yesterday it was a little baby face, and we was all +pretty nigh crazy over you." + +"I wish I had died then!" said Zell, passionately, and hurrying away. + +"Poor chile, poor chile! she takes it mighty hard," said innocent +Hannibal. + +She kept her room during the afternoon, pleading that she did not feel +well. It gave her pain to be with her mother and Laura, now that she +purposed to leave them so abruptly, and she wished to see nothing that +would shake her resolution to go as she had arranged. She wrote to +Edith as follows: + +"I am going, Edith, to meet Mr. Van Dam, as he told me. I cannot--I +will not believe that he will prove false to me. I leave his letter, +which I received to-day. Perhaps you never will forgive me at home; +but whatever becomes of poor little Zell, she will not cease to love +you all. I should only be a burden if I stayed. There will be one less +to provide for, and I may be able to help you far more by going than +staying. Don't follow me. I've made my venture, and chosen my lot. +ZELL." + +As the long twilight was deepening, Hannibal, returning from the well +with a pail of water, heard the gate-latch click, and, looking up, saw +Zell hurrying out with hat and shawl on, and having the appearance of +carrying something under her shawl. He felt a little surprise at +first, but then, Zell was so full of impulse, that he concluded: + +"She's gwine to meet Miss Edie. We'se all a-lookin' and leanin' on +Miss Edie, Lor bres her." + +But Zell was going to perdition. + +Little later the stage brought tired Edith home, but in better spirits +than before, as she had realized a somewhat fair sum for what she had +sold, and had been treated politely. + +After taking off her things, she asked, "Where's Zell?" + +"Lying down, I think," said Laura. "She complained of not feeling well +this afternoon." + +But Hannibal's anxious face in the door now caught her attention, and +she joined him at once. + +"Didn't you meet Miss Zell?" he asked in a whisper. + +"Meet her? No," answered Edith, excitedly. + +"Dat's quare. She went out with hat and shawl on a little while ago. +P'raps she's come back, and gone upstairs again." + +Trembling so she could hardly walk steadily, Edith hurried to her +room, and there saw Zell's note. Tearing it open, she only read the +first line, and then rushed down to her mother and Laura, sobbing: + +"Zell's gone." + +"Gone! Where?" they said, with dismayed faces. + +Edith's only reply was to look suddenly at her watch, put on her hat, +and dart out of the door. She saw that there were still ten minutes +before the evening boat passed the Pushton landing, and remembered +that it was sometimes delayed. There was a shorter road to the dock +than the one through the village, and this she took, with flying feet, +and a white but determined face. It would have been a terrible thing +for Van Dam to have met her then. She seemed sustained by supernatural +strength, and, walking and running by turns, made the mile and a half +in an incredibly short space of time. As she reached the top of the +hill above the landing, she saw the boat coming in to the dock. Though +panting and almost spent, again she ran at the top of her speed. Half-way down she heard the plank ring out upon the wharf. + +"Stop!" she called. But her parched lips uttered only a faint sound, +like the cry of one in a dream. + +A moment later, as she struggled desperately forward, there came, like +the knell of hope, the command: + +"All aboard!" + +"Oh, wait, wait!" she again tried to call, but her tongue seemed +paralyzed. + +As she reached the commencement of the long dock, she saw the lines +cast off. The great wheels gave a vigorous revolution, and the boat +swept away. + +She was too late. She staggered forward a few steps more, and then all +her remaining strength went into one agonized cry: + +"Zell!" + +And she fell fainting on the dock. + +Zell heard that cry, and recognized the voice. Taking her hand from +Mr. Van Dam's arm, she covered her face in sudden remorseful weeping. + +But it was too late. + +She had left the shelter of home, and ventured out into the great +pitiless world on nothing better than Van Dam's word. It was like +walking a rotten plank out into the sea. + +Zell was lost! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +DESOLATION + + + +Not only did Edith's bitter cry startle poor Zell, coming to her ear +as a despairing recall from the battlements of heaven might have +sounded to a falling angel, but Arden Lacey was as thoroughly aroused +from his painful revery as if shaken by a giant hand. He had been down +to meet the boat, with many others, and was sending off some little +produce from their place. He had not noticed in the dusk the closely-veiled lady; indeed, he rarely noticed any one unless they spoke to +him, and then gave but brief, surly attention. Only one had scanned +Zell curiously, and that was Tom Crowl. With his quick eye for +something wrong in human action, he was attracted by Zell's manner. He +could not make out through her thick veil who she was, in the +increasing darkness, but he saw that she was agitated, and that she +looked eagerly for the coming of the boat, also landward, where the +road came out on the dock, as if fearing or expecting something from +that quarter. But when he saw her join Van Dam, he recognized his old +bar-room acquaintance, and surmised that the lady was one of the Allen +family. Possessing these links in the chain, he was ready for the +next. Edith's presence and cry supplied this, and he chuckled +exultantly: + +"An elopement!" and ran in the direction of the sound. + +But Arden was already at Edith's side, having reached her almost at a +bound, and was gently lifting the unconscious girl, and regarding her +with a tenderness only equalled by his helplessness and perplexity in +not knowing what to do with her. + +The first impulse of his great strength was to carry her directly to +her home. But Edith was anything but ethereal, and long before he +could have passed the mile and a half, he would have fainted under the +burden, even though love nerved his arms. But while he stood in +piteous irresolution, there came out from the crowd that had gathered +round, a stout, middle-aged woman, who said, in a voice that not only +betokened the utmost confidence in herself, but also the assurance +that all the world had confidence in her: + +"Here, give me the girl. What do you men-folks know about women?" + +"I declare, it's Mrs. Groody from the hotel," ejaculated Tom Crowl, as +this delightful drama (to him) went on from act to act. + +"Standin' there and holdin' of her," continued Mrs. Groody, who was +sometimes a little severe on both sexes, "won't bring her to, unless +she fainted 'cause she wanted some one to hold her." + +A general laugh greeted this implied satire, but Arden, between anger +and desire to do something, was almost beside himself. He had the +presence of mind to rush to the boat-house for a bucket of water, and +when he arrived with it a man had also procured a lantern, which +revealed to the curious onlookers who gathered round with craning +necks the pale features of Edith Allen. + +"By golly, but it's one of them Allen girls," said Tom Crowl, eagerly. +"I see it all now. She's down to stop her sister, who's just run away +with one of those city scamps that was up here awhile ago. I saw her +join him and take his arm on the boat, but wasn't sure who she was +then." + +"Might know you was around, Tom Crowl," said Mrs. Groody. "There's +never nothing wrong going on but you see it. You are worse than any +old woman for gossip. Why don't you put on petticoats and go out to +tea for a livin'?" + +When the laugh ceased at Crowl's expense, he said: + +"Don't you put on airs, Mrs. Groody; you are as glad, to hear the news +as any one. It's a pity you turned up and spoiled Mr. Lacey's part of +the play, for, if this one is anything like her sister, she, perhaps, +wanted to be held, as you--" + +Tom's further utterance was effectually stopped by such a blow across +his mouth, from Lacey's hand, as brought the blood profusely on the +spot, and caused such disfigurement, for days after, that appropriate +justice seemed visited on the offending region. + +"Leave this dock," said Arden, sternly; "and if I trace any slander to +you concerning this lady or myself, I will break every bone in your +miserable body." + +Crowl shrank off amid the jeers of the crowd, but on reaching a safe +distance, said, "You will be sorry for this." + +Arden paid no need to him, for Edith, under Mrs. Groody's treatment, +gave signs of returning consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes, and +turned them wonderingly around; then came a look of wild alarm, as she +saw herself surrounded by strange bearded faces, that appeared both +savage and grotesque in the flickering light of the lantern. + +"O, Heaven! have mercy," she cried, faintly. "Where am I?" + +"Among friends, I assure you, Miss Allen," said Arden, kneeling at her +side. + +"Mr. Lacey! and are you here?" said Edith, trying to rise. "You surely +will protect me." + +"Do not be afraid, Miss Allen. No one would harm you for the world; +and Mrs. Groody is a good kind lady, and will see you safely home, I +am sure." + +Edith now became conscious that it was Mrs. Groody who was supporting +her, and regained confidence, as she recognized the presence of a +woman. + +"Law bless you, child, you needn't be scared. You have only had a +faint. I'll take care of you, as young Lacey says. Seems to me he's +got wonderfully polite since last summer," she muttered to herself. + +"But where am I?" asked Edith, with a bewildered air; "what has +happened?" + +"Oh, don't worry yourself; you'll soon be home and safe." + +But the memory of it all suddenly came to Edith, and even by the +lantern's light, Arden saw the sudden crimson pour into her face and +neck, She gave one wild, deprecating look around, and then buried her +face in her hands as if to hide the look of scorn she expected to see +on every face. + +The first arrow aimed by Zell's great wrong already quivered in her +heart. + +"Don't you think you could walk a little now, just enough to get into +the hack with me and go home?" asked the kind woman, in a soothing +voice. + +"Yes, yes," said Edith, eagerly; "let us get away at once." And with +Mrs. Groody's and Arden's assistance, she was soon seated in the hack, +and was glad to note that there was no other passenger. The ride was a +comparatively silent one. Edith was too exhausted from her desperate +struggle to reach the boat, and her heart was too bruised and sore, to +permit on her part much more than monosyllables, in answer to Mrs. +Groody's efforts at conversation. But as they stopped at the cottage +her new friend said, cheerily: + +"Don't take it so hard, my child; you ain't to blame. I'll stand by +you if no one else will. It don't take me long to know a good honest +girl when I see one, and I know you mean well. What's more, I've took +a likin' to you, and I can be a pretty fair sort of friend if I do +work for a livin'." + +Mrs. Groody was good if not grammatical. She had broad shoulders, that +had borne in their day many burdens--her own and others'. She had a +strong, stout frame, in which thumped a large, kindly heart. She had +long earned her bread by callings that brought her in contact with all +classes, and had learned to know the world very thoroughly without +becoming worldly or hardened. But she had a quick, sharp tongue, and +could pay anybody off in his own coin with interest. Everybody soon +found it to his advantage to keep on the right side of Mrs. Groody, +and the old habitues of the hotel were as polite and deferential to +her as if she were a duchess. She was one of those shrewd, strong, +cheery people, who would make themselves snug, useful, and influential +in a very short time, if set down anywhere on the face of the earth. + +Such a woman readily surmised the nature of Edith's trouble, and knew +well how deeply the shadow of Zell's disgrace would fall on the +family. Edith's desperate effort to save her sister, her bitter +humiliation and shrinking shame in view of the flight, all proved her +to be worthy of respect and confidence herself. When Mrs. Groody saw +that Edith lived in a little house, and was probably not in so high a +social position as to resent her patronage, her big heart yearned in +double sympathy over the poor girl, and she determined to help her in +the struggle she knew to be before her; so she said, kindly: + +"If you'll wait till a clumsy old body like me can get out, I'll see +you safe into your home." + +"Oh, no," said Edith, eagerly, following the strong instinct to keep a +stranger from seeing herself, her mother, and Laura in the first hour +of their shame. "You have been very kind, and I feel that I can never +repay you." + +"Bless you, child, I don't expect greenbacks for all I do. I want a +little of the Lord's work to come to me, though I'm afraid I fell from +grace long ago. But a body can't be pious in a hotel. There's so many +aggravatin' people and things that you think swearin', if you darsn't +say it out. But I'm a human sort of a heathen, after all, and I feel +sorry for you. Now ain't there somethin' I can do for you?" + +The driver stood with his lantern near the door, and its rays fell on +Edith's pale face and large, tearful eyes, and she turned, and for the +first time tried to see who this kind woman was, that seemed to feel +for her. Taking Mrs. Groody's hands, she said, in a voice of tremulous +pathos: + +"God bless you for speaking to me at all. I didn't think any one would +again who knew. You ask if you can do anything for me. If you'll only +get me work, I'll bless you every day of my life. No one on earth or +in heaven can help me, unless I get work. I'm almost desperate for it, +and I can't seem to find any that will bring us bread, but I'll do any +honest work, no matter what, and I'll take whatever people are willing +to give for it, till I can do better." Edith spoke in a rapid manner, +but in a tone that went straight to the heart. + +"Why, my poor child," said Mrs. Groody, wiping her eyes, "you can't do +work. You are pale as a ghost, and you look like a delicate lady." + +"What is there in this world for a delicate lady who has no money but +honest work?" asked Edith, in a tone that was almost stern. + +"I see that you are such a lady, and it seems that you ought to find +some lady-like work, if you must do it," said Mrs. Groody, musingly. + +"We have tried to get employment--almost any kind. I can't think my +sister would have taken her desperate course if we could have obtained +something to do. I know she ought to have starved first. But we were +not brought up to work, and we can't do anything well enough to +satisfy people, and we haven't time to learn. Besides, before this +happened, for some reason people stood aloof from us, and now it will +be far worse. Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?" cried Edith, +despairingly; and in her trouble she seemed to turn her eyes away from +Mrs. Groody, with wild questioning of the future. + +Her new acquaintance was sniffling and blowing her nose in a manner +that betokened serious internal commotion. The driver, who would have +hustled any ordinary passenger out quickly enough, waited Mrs. +Groody's leisure at a respectful distance. He knew her potential +influence at the hotel. At last the good woman found her voice, though +it seemed a little husky: + +"Lor' bless you, child! I ain't got a millstun for a heart, and if I +had, you'd turn it into wax. If work's all you want, you shall have +it. I'm housekeeper at the hotel. You come to me as soon as you are +able, and we'll find something." + +"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Edith, fervidly. + +"Is dat you, Miss Edie?" called Hannibal's anxious voice. + +"Good-night, my dear," said Mrs. Groody, hastily, "Don't lose courage. +I ain't on as good terms with the Lord as I ought to be. I seem too +worried and busy to 'tend to religion; but I know enough about Him to +be sure that He will take care of a poor child that wants to do +right." + +"I don't understand how God lets happen all that's happened to-day. +The best I can believe is, that we are dealt with in a mass, and the +poor human atoms are lost sight of. But I am indeed grateful for your +kindness, and will come to-morrow and do anything I can. Good-by." + +And the hack rumbled away, leaving her in the darkness, with Hannibal +at the gate. + +"Oh, Hannibal, Hannibal," was all that Edith could say. + +"Is she done gone clean away?" asked Hannibal, in an awed whisper. + +"Would to heaven she had never been born!" said Edith, bitterly. "Help +me into the house, for I feel as if I should die." + +Hannibal, trembling with fear himself, supported poor, exhausted Edith +to a sofa, and then disappeared into the kitchen. + +Mrs. Allen and Laura came and stood with white faces by Edith's +languid, unnerved form. + +There was no need of asking questions. She had returned alone, with +her fresh young face looking old and drawn in its grief. + +At last Mrs. Allen said, with bitter emphasis: + +"She is no child of mine, from this day forth." + +Then followed such a dreary silence that it might seem that Zell had +died and was no more. + +At last Hannibal bustled in, making a most desperate effort to keep up +a poor show of courage and hope. He placed on a little table before +Edith a steaming hot cup of tea, some toast, and wine, but the food +was motioned away. + +"It would choke me," said Edith. + +Hannibal stood before her a moment, his quaint old visage working +under the influence of emotion, almost beyond control. At last he +managed to say: + +"Miss Edie, we'se all a leanin' on you. We'se nothin' but vines a +climbin' up de orange-bush. If you goes down, we all does. And now, +Miss Edie, I'd swallow pison for you. Won't you take a cup o' tea for +de sake of ole Hannibal? 'Cause your sweet face looks so pinched, +honey, dat I feels dat my ole black heart's ready to bust;" and +Hannibal, feeling that the limit of his restraint was reached, +retreated precipitately to the kitchen. + +The appeal, with its element of deep affection, was more needed by +Edith in her half-paralyzed state than even the material refreshment. +She sat up instantly, and drank the tea and wine, and ate a little of +the toast. Then taking the cup and glass into the kitchen: + +"There," she said, "see, I've drunk every drop. So don't worry about +me any more, my poor old Hannibal, but go to bed, after your hard +day's work." + +But Hannibal would not venture out of his dark corner, but muttered, +brokenly: + +"Lor--bress--you--Miss Edie--you'se an angel--I'se be better soon--I'se got--de hiccups." + +Edith thought it kindness to leave the old man to recover his self-control in his own time and way, so she said: + +"Good-night, my faithful old friend. You're worth your weight in +gold." + +Meantime, Laura had helped Mrs. Allen to her room but now she came +running down to Edith, with new trouble in her face, saying: + +"Mother's crying so, I can't do anything with her." + +At first Mrs. Allen's heart seemed hardened against her erring child, +but on reaching her room she stood a few moments irresolutely, then +went to a drawer, took out an old faded picture-case and opened it. +From it Zell smiled out upon her, a little, dimpled baby. Then, as if +by a sudden impulse rare to her, she pressed her lips against the +unconscious face, and threw herself into her low chair, sobbing so +violently that Laura became alarmed. + +Even in that arid place, Mrs. Allen's heart, there appeared a little +oasis of mother love, as this last and bitterest sorrow pierced its +lowest depths. She might cast out from her affection the grown, +sinning daughter, but not the baby that once slept upon her breast. + +As Edith came and took her hand she said, brokenly: + +"It seems--but yesterday--that she was--a wee black-eyed--little +thing--in my arms--and your father--came--and looked at her--so +proudly--tenderly--" + +"Would to heaven she had died then!" said Edith, sternly. + +"It would have been better if we had all died then,", said Mrs. Allen +drearily, and becoming quiet. + +Edith's words fell like a chill upon her unwontedly stirred heart, and +old habits of feeling and action resumed sway. + +With Mrs. Allen's words ended the miserable day of Zell's flight. +Hannibal's words were true. Zell, in her unnatural absence, would be +more in the way--a heavier burden--than if she had become a helpless +invalid upon their hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +EDITH'S TRUE KNIGHT + + + +The next morning Edith was too ill to rise. She had become chilled +after her extraordinary exertion of the previous evening, and a severe +cold was the consequence; and this, with the nervous prostration of an +over-taxed system, made her appear more seriously indisposed than she +really was. For the sake of her mother and Laura, she wished to be +present at the meagre little breakfast which her economy now +permitted, but found it impossible; and later in the day her mind +seemed disposed to wander. + +Mrs. Allen and Laura were terror-stricken at this new trouble. As +Hannibal had said, they were all leaning on Edith. They had lost +confidence in themselves, and now hoped nothing from the outside +world. They had scarcely the shadow of an expectation that Van Dam +would marry Zell, and therefore they knew that worse than work would +separate them from all old connections, and they had learned to hope +nothing from the people of Pushton. Poor, feverish, wandering Edith +seemed the only one who could keep them from falling into the abyss of +utter want. They instinctively felt that total wreck was impossible as +long as she kept her hand upon the helm; but now they had all the wild +alarm of those who are drifting helplessly toward a reef, with a deep +and stormy sea on either side of it. Thus to the natural anxiety of +affection was added sickening fear. + +Poor old Hannibal had no fear for himself. His devotion to Edith +reminded one of a faithful dog: it was so strong, instinctive, +unreasoning. He realized vaguely that his whole existence depended on +Edith's getting well, and yet we doubt whether he thought of himself +any more than the Newfoundland, who watches beside the bed, and then +beside the grave of a loved master, till famine, that form of pain +which humanity cannot endure, robs him of life. + +"We must have a physician immediately," said Laura, with white lips. + +"Oh, no," murmured Edith; "we can't afford it." + +"We must," said Laura, with a sudden rush of tears. "Everything +depends on you." + +Hannibal, who heard this brief dialogue, went silently downstairs, and +at once started in quest of Arden Lacey. + +"If he is quar, he seemed kind o' human; and I'se believe he'll help +us now." + +Arden was on the way to the barn, having just finished a farmer's +twelve o'clock dinner, when Hannibal entered the yard. An angel of +light could not have been more welcome than this dusky messenger, for +he came from the centre of all light and hope to poor Arden. Then a +feeling of alarm took possession of him. Had anything happened to +Edith? He had seen her shrinking shame. Had it led her to--and he +shuddered at the thought his wild imagination suggested. It was almost +a relief when Hannibal said: + +"Oh, Mr. Lacey, I'se sure from de way you acted when we fust come, dat +you can feel for people in trouble. Miss Edie's berry sick, and I +don't know whar to go for a doctor, and she won't have any; but she +mus, and right away. Den again, I oughter not leave, for dey's all +nearly dead with trouble and cryin'." + +"You are a good, faithful fellow," said Arden, heartily. "Go back and +do all you can for Miss Edith, and I'll bring a doctor myself, and +much quicker too than you could." + +Before Hannibal reached home, Arden galloped past him, and the old man +chuckled: + +"De drunken Laceys' mighty good neighbors when dey's sober." + +As may well be imagined, recent events, as far as he understood them, +had stirred Arden's sensitive nature to the very depths. Hiding his +feelings from all save his mother, and often from her; appearing to +his neighbors stolid and sullen in the extreme, he was, in fact, in +his whole being, like a morbidly-excited nerve. He did not shrink from +the world because indifferent to it, but because it wounded him when +he came in contact with it. He seemed so out of tune with society that +it produced only jarring discord. His father's course brought him many +real slights, and these he resented as we have seen, and he resented +fancied slights quite as often, and thus he had cut himself off from +the sympathies, and even the recognition, of nearly all. + +But what human soul can dwell alone? The true hermit finds in +communion with the Divine mind the perfection of companionship. But +Arden knew not God. He had heard of Him all his life; but Jove and +Thor were images more familiar to his mind than that of his Creator. +He loved his mother and sister, but their life seemed a poor, shaded +little nook, where they toiled and moped. And so, to satisfy the +cravings of his lonely heart, he had created and peopled an unreal +world of his own, in which he dwelt most of the time. As his interest +in the real world ceased, his imagination more vividly portrayed the +shadowy one, till at last, in the scenes of poetry and fiction, and +the splendid panorama of history, he thought he might rest satisfied, +and find all the society he needed in converse with those whom, by a +refinement of spiritualism, he could summon to his side from any age +or land. He secretly exulted in the still greater magic by which the +unreal creatures of poetic thought would come at his volition, and he +often smiled to think how royally attended was "old, drunken Lacey's" +son, whom many of the neighbors thought scarcely better than the +horses he drove. + +Thus he lived under a spell of the past, in a world moon-lighted by +sentiment and fancy, surrounded by his ideals of those about whom he +read, and Shakespeare's vivid, life-like women were better known to +him than any of the ladies of Pushton. But dreams cannot last in our +material world, and ghosts vanish in the sunlight of fact. Woman's +nature is as beautiful and fascinating now as when the master-hand of +the world's greatest poet delineated it, and when living, breathing +Edith Allen stepped suddenly among his shadows, seemingly so luminous, +they vanished before her, as the stars pale into nothingness when the +eastern sky is aglow with morning. Now, in all his horizon, she only +shone, but the past seemed like night, and the present, day. + +The circumstances under which he had met Edith had, in brief time, +done more to acquaint him with her than years might have accomplished, +and for the first time in his life he saw a superior girl with the +distorting medium of his prejudice pushed aside. Therefore she was a +sudden beautiful revelation to him, as vivid as unexpected. He did not +believe any such being existed, and indeed there did not, if we +consider into what he came to idealize Edith. But a better Edith +really lived than the unnatural paragon that he pictured to himself, +and the reality was capable of a vast improvement, though not in the +direction that his morbid mind would have indicated. + +The treatment of his sister, the sudden ceasing of all intercourse, +and the appearance of Gus Elliot upon the scene, had cruelly wounded +his fair ideal, but with a lover's faith and a poet's fancy he soon +repaired the ravages of facts. He assured himself that Edith did not +know the character of the men who visited her house. + +Then came Crowl's gossip, the knowledge of her poverty, and her +wretched errands to New York to dispose of the relics of the happy +past. He gathered from such observations as he could maintain without +being suspected, by every crumb of gossip that he could pick up (for +once he listened to gossip as if it were gospel), that they were in +trouble, that Edith was looking for work, and that she was so superior +to the rest of the family that they now all deferred to her and leaned +upon her. Then, to his deep satisfaction, he had seen Elliot, the +morning after his scathing repulse, going to the train, and looking +forlorn and sadly out of humor, and he was quite sure he had not been +near the little cottage since. Arden needed but little fact upon which +to rear a wondrous superstructure, and here seemed much, and all in +Edith's favor, and he longed with an intensity beyond language to do +something to help her. + +Then came the tragedy of Zell's flight, Edith's heroic and almost +superhuman effort to save her, now followed by her pathetic weakness +and suffering, and no knight in the romantic age of chivalry ever more +wholly and loyally devoted himself to the high-born lady of his +choice, than did Arden to the poor sick girl at whom the finger of +scorn would now be generally pointed in Pushton. + +To come back to our hero, galloping away on his old farm horse to find +a country doctor, may seem a short step down from the sublime. And so, +perhaps, it may be to those whose ideal of the sublime is only in +outward and material things. But to those who look past these things +to the passionate human heart, the same in every age, it will be +evident that Arden was animated by the same spirit with which he would +have sought and fought the traditional dragon. + +Dr. Neak, a new-comer who was gaining some little name for skill and +success, and was making the most of it, was at home; but on Arden's +hurried application, ahemmed, hesitated, colored a little, and at last +said: + +"Look here, Mr.---(I beg your pardon, I've not the pleasure of knowing +your name), I'm a comparative stranger in Pushton, and am just gaining +some little reputation among the better classes. I would rather not +compromise myself by attendance upon that family. If you can't get any +one else, and the girl is suffering, of course I'll try and go, but--" + +"Enough," interrupted Arden, starting up blazing with wrath. "You +should spell your name with an S. I want a man as well as a +physician," and, with a look of utter contempt, he hastened away, +leaving the medical man somewhat anxious, not about Edith, but whether +he had taken the best course in view of his growing reputation. + +Arden next traced out Dr. Blunt, who readily promised to come. He +attended all alike, and charged roundly also. + +"Business is business," was his motto. "People who employ me must +expect to pay. After all, I'm the cheapest man in the place, for I +tell my patients the truth, and cure them as quickly as possible." + +Arden's urgency soon brought him to Edith's side, and his practiced +eye saw no serious cause for alarm, and having heard more fully the +circumstances, he said: + +"She will be well in a few days if she is kept very quiet, and nothing +new sets in. Of course she would be sick after last night. One might +as well put his hand in the fire and not expect it to burn him, as to +get very warm and then cool off suddenly and not expect to be ill. Her +pulse indicates general depression of her system, and need of rest. +That's all." + +After prescribing remedies and a tonic, he said, "Let me know if I am +needed again," and departed in rather ill-humor. + +Meeting Arden's anxious, questioning face at the gate, he said +gruffly: + +"I thought from what you said the girl was dying. Used up and a bad +cold, that's all. Somewhat feverish yourself, ain't you?" he added +meaningly. + +Though Arden colored under the doctor's satire, he was chiefly +conscious of a great relief that his idol was not in danger. His only +reply was the sullen, impassive expression he usually turned toward +the world. + +As the doctor rode away, Hannibal joined him, saying: + +"Mr. Lacey, you'se a friend in need, and if you only knowed what an +angel you'se servin', you wouldn't look so cross." + +"Do I look cross?" asked Arden, his face becoming friendly in a +moment. "Well, it wasn't with you, still less with Miss Edith; for +even you cannot serve her more gladly than I will. That old doctor +r'iled me a little, though I can forgive him, since he says she is not +seriously ill." + +"I'se glad you feels your privileges," said Hannibal, with some +dignity. "I'se knowed Miss Edie eber since she was a baby, and when we +lived on de avenue, de biggest and beautifullest in de city come to +our house, but none of 'em could compare wid my young lady. I don't +care what folks say, she's jes as good now, if she be poor, and her +sister hab run away, poor chile. De world don't know all;" and old +Hannibal shook his white head sadly and reproachfully. + +This panegyric found strong echo in Arden's heart, but his habit of +reticence and his sensitive shrinking from any display of feeling +permitted him only to say, "I am sure every word you say is more than +true, and you will do me a great favor when you let me know how I can +serve Miss Edith." + +Hannibal saw that he need waste no more ammunition on Arden, so he +pulled out the prescriptions, and said: + +"The doctor guv me dese, but, Lor bress you, my ole jints is stiff, +and I'd be a week in gittin' down and back from de willage." + +"That's enough," interrupted Arden. "You shall have the medicines in +half an hour;" and he kept his word. + +"He is quar," muttered Hannibal, looking after him. "Neber saw a man +so 'bligin'. Folks say winegar ain't nothin' to him, but he seems +sweet on Miss Edie, sure 'nuff. What 'ud he say, 'You'se do me great +favor to tell me how I can serve Miss Edie'? I'se hope it'll last," +chuckled Hannibal, retiring to his domain in the kitchen, "'cause I'se +gwine to do him a heap ob favors." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A MYSTERY + + + +At Arden's request his mother called in the evening, and also Mrs. +Groody, from the hotel. Hannibal met them, and stated the doctor's +orders. Mrs. Allen and Laura did not feel equal to facing any one. +Though the old servant was excessively polite, the callers felt rather +slighted that they saw no member of the family. They went away a +little chilled in consequence, and contented themselves thereafter by +sending a few delicacies and inquiring how Edith was. + +"If you have any self-respect at all," said Rose Lacey to her mother, +"you will not go there again till you are invited. It's rather too +great a condescension for you to go at all, after what has happened." + +Arden listened with a black look, and asked, rather sharply: + +"Will you never learn to distinguish between Miss Edith and the +others?" + +"Yes," said Rose, dryly, "when she gives me a chance." + +The doctor's view of Edith's case was correct. Her vigorous and +elastic constitution soon rallied from the shock it had received. +Hannibal had sent to the village for nutritious diet, which he knew so +well how to prepare, and, after a few days, she was quite herself +again. But with returning strength came also a sense of shame, +anxiety, and a torturing dread of the future. The money accruing from +her last sale of jewelry would not pay the debts resting on them now, +and she could not hope to earn enough to pay the balance remaining, in +addition to their support. Her mother suggested the mortgaging of her +place. She had at first repelled the idea, but at last entertained it +reluctantly. There seemed no other resource. It would put off the evil +day of utter want, and might give her time to learn something by which +she could compete with trained workers. + +Then there was the garden. Might not that and the orchard, in time, +help them out of their troubles? + +As the long hours of her convalescence passed, she sat at her window +and scanned the little spot with a wistfulness that might have been +given to one of Eden-like proportions. She was astonished to see how +her strawberries had improved since she hoed them, but noted in dismay +that both they and the rest of the garden were growing very weedy. + +When the full knowledge of their poverty and danger dawned upon her, +she felt that it would not be right for Malcom to come any more. At +the same time she could not explain things to him; so she sent a +written request through the mail for his bill, telling him not to come +any more. This action, following the evening when Gus Elliot had +surprised her in the garden, perplexed and rather nettled Malcom, who +was, to use his own expression, "a bit tetchy." Their money had grown +so scarce that Edith could not pay the bill, and she was ashamed to go +to see him till there was some prospect of her doing so. Thus Malcom, +though disposed to be very friendly, was lost to her at this critical +time, and her garden suffered accordingly. She and Hannibal had done +what they could, but of late her illness, and the great accession of +duties resting on the old servant, had caused complete neglect in her +little plantation of fruit and vegetables. Thus, while all her crops +were growing well, the weeds were gaining on them, and even Edith knew +that the vigor of evil was in them, and that, unchecked, they would +soon make a tangled swamp of that one little place of hope. She could +not ask Hannibal to work there now, for he was overburdened already. +Laura seemed so feeble and crushed that her strength was scarcely +equal to taking care of her mother, and the few lighter duties of +housework. Therefore, though the June sunshine rested on the little +garden, and all nature seemed in the rapture of its early summer life, +poor, practical Edith saw only the pestiferous weeds that threatened +to destroy her one slender prospect of escape from environing +difficulties. At last she turned away. To the sad and suffering, +scenes most full of cheer and beauty often seem the most painful +mockery. + +She brooded over her affairs most of the day, dwelling specially on +the suggestion of a mortgage. She felt extreme reluctance in perilling +her home. Then again she said to herself, "It will at least give me +time, and perhaps the place will be sold for debt, for we must live." + +The next morning she slept late, her weary, overtaxed frame asserting +its need. But she rose greatly refreshed, and it seemed that her +strength had come back. With returning vigor hopefulness revived. She +felt some cessation of the weary, aching sorrow at her heart. The +world is phosphorescent to the eyes of youth, and even ingulfing waves +of misfortune will sometimes gleam with sudden brightness. + +The morning light also brought Edith a pleasant surprise, for, as she +was dressing, her eyes eagerly sought the strawberry-bed. She had been +thinking, "If I only continue to gain in this style, I shall soon be +able myself to attack the weeds." Therefore, instead of a helpless +look, such as she gave yesterday, her glance had something vengeful +and threatening in it. But the moment she opened the lattice, so that +she could see, an exclamation came from her lips, and she threw back +the blinds, in order that there might be no mistake as to the wonder +that startled her. What magic had transformed the little place since, +in the twilight of the previous evening, she had given the last +discouraged look in that direction? There was scarcely a weed to be +seen in the strawberry-bed. They had not only been cut off, but raked +away, and here and there she could see a berry reddening in the +morning sun. In addition, some of her most important vegetables, and +her prettiest flower border, had been cleaned and nicely dressed. A +long row of Dan O'Rourk peas, that had commenced to sprawl on the +ground, was now hedged in by brush; and, better still, thirty cedar +poles stood tall and straight among her Lima beans, whose long slender +shoots had been vainly feeling round for a support the last few days. +Her first impulse was to clap her hands with delight and exclaim: +"How, in the name of wonder, could he do it all in a night! Oh, +Malcom, you are a canny Scotchman, but you put the 'black art' to very +white uses." + +She dressed in excited haste, meaning to question Hannibal, but, as +she left her room, Laura met her, and said, in a tone of the deepest +despondency-- + +"Mother seems very ill. She has not felt like herself since that +dreadful night, but we did not like to tell you, fearing it would put +back your recovery." + +The rift in the heavy clouds, through which the sun had gleamed for a +moment, now closed, and a deeper gloom seemed to gather round them. In +sudden revulsion Edith said, bitterly: + +"Are we to be persecuted to the end? Cannot the heavy hand of +misfortune be lifted a moment?" + +She found her mother suffering from a low, nervous fever, and quite +delirious. + +Hannibal was at once despatched for the doctor, who, having examined +Mrs. Allen's symptoms, shook his head, saying: + +"Nothing but good nursing will bring her through this." + +Edith's heart sank like lead. What prospect was there for work now, +even if Mrs. Groody gave it to her, as she had promised? She saw +nothing before her but the part of a weary watcher, for perhaps +several weeks. She hesitated no longer, but resolved to mortgage her +place at once. Her mother must have delicacies and good attendance, +and she must have time to extricate herself from the difficulties into +which she had been brought by false steps at the beginning. Therefore +she told Hannibal to give her an early lunch, after which she would +walk to the village. + +"You isn't able," said he earnestly. + +"Oh, yes I am," she replied; "better able than to stay at home and +worry. I must have something settled, and my mind at rest, even for a +little while, or I shall go distracted." Then she added, "Did you see +Malcom here early this morning?" + +"No, Miss Edie, he hasn't been here." + +"Go look at the garden." + +He returned with eyes dilated in wonder, and asked quickly, "Miss +Edie, when was all dat done?" + +"Between dark last night and when I got up this morning. It seems like +magic, don't it? But of course it is Malcom's work. I only wish I +could see him." + +But Hannibal shook his head ominously and said with emphasis, "Dat +little Scotchman couldn't scratch around like dat, even if de debil +was arter him. 'Tain't his work." + +"Why, whose else could it be?" asked Edith, sipping a strong cup of +coffee, with which she was fortifying herself for the walk. + +Hannibal only shook his head with a very troubled expression, but at +last he ventured: + +"If 'tis a spook, I hope it won't do nothin' wuss to us." + +Even across Edith's pale face a wan smile flitted at this solution of +the mystery, and she said: + +"Why, Hannibal, you foolish old fellow! The idea of a ghost hoeing a +strawberry-bed and sticking in bean-poles!" + +But Hannibal's superstitious nature was deeply stirred. He had been +under a severe strain himself of late, and the succession of sorrows +and strange experiences was telling on him as well as on the others. +He could not indulge in a nervous fever, like Mrs. Allen, but he had +reached that stage when he could easily see visions, and tremble +before the slightest vestige of the supernatural. So he replied a +little doggedly: + +"Spooks does a heap ob quar tings, Miss Edie. I'd tink it was Massa +Allen, ony I knows dat he neber hab a hoe in his hand all his life. I +doesn't like it. I'd radder hab de weeds." + +"O Hannibal, Hannibal! I couldn't believe it of you. I'll go and see +Malcom, just to satisfy you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A DANGEROUS STEP + + + +Edith took her deed, and went first to Mr. Hard. There were both +coldness and curiosity in his manner, but he could gather little from +Edith's face through her thick veil. + +She had a painful shrinking from meeting people again after what had +happened, and this was greatly increased by the curious and +significant looks she saw turned toward her as soon as it was surmised +who she was. + +Mr. Hard promptly declined to lend any money. He "never did such +things," he said. + +"Where would I be apt to get it?" asked Edith, despondently. + +"I scarcely know. Money is scarce, and people don't like to lend it on +country mortgages, especially when there may be trouble. Lawyer Keen +might give you some information." + +To his office Edith went, with slow, heavy steps, and presented her +case. + +Mr. Keen was a red-faced, burly-looking man, hiding the traditional +shrewdness of a village lawyer under a bluff, outspoken manner. He had +a sort of good-nature, which, though not lending him to help others +who were in trouble, kept him from trying to get them into more +trouble, and he quite prided himself on this. He heard Edith partly +through, and then interrupted her, saying: + +"Couldn't think of it, miss. Widows, orphans, and churches are +institutions on which a fellow can never foreclose. I'll give you good +advice, and won't charge you anything for it. You had better keep out +of debt." + +"But I must have the money," said Edith. + +"Then you have come to the wrong shop for it," replied the lawyer, +coolly. "Here's Crowl, now, he lends where I wouldn't. He's got money +of his own, while I invest mainly for other people." + +Edith's attention was thus directed to another red-faced man, whom, +thus far, she had scarcely noticed, though he had been watching her +with the closest scrutiny. He was quite corpulent, past middle age, +and not much taller than herself. He was quite bald, and had what +seemed a black moustache, but Edith's quick eye noted that it was +unskilfully dyed. There seemed a wide expanse in his heavy, flabby +cheeks, and the rather puggish nose appeared insignificant between +them. A slight tobacco stain in one corner of his mouth did not +increase his attractions to Edith, and she positively shrank from the +expression of his small, cunning black eyes. He was dressed both +showily and shabbily, and a great breastpin was like a blotch upon his +rumpled shirt-bosom. + +"Let me see your deed, my dear," he said, with coarse familiarity. + +"My name is Miss Allen," replied Edith, with dignity. + +The man paid little heed to her rebuke, but looked over the deed with +slow and microscopic scrutiny. At last he said to Edith, whom nothing +but dire necessity impelled to have dealings with so disagreeable a +person: + +"Will you come with me to my office?" + +Reluctantly she followed. At first she had a strong impulse to have +nothing to do with him, but then she thought, "It makes no difference +of whom I borrow the money, for it must be paid in any case, and +perhaps I can't get it anywhere else." + +"Are you sure there is no other mortgage?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Edith. + +"How much do you want?" + +"I will try to make four hundred answer." + +"I suppose you know how hard it is to borrow money now," said Mr. +Crowl, in a depressing manner, "especially in cases like this. I don't +believe you'd get a dollar anywhere else in town. Even where +everything is good and promising, we usually get a bonus on such a +loan. The best I could do would be to let you have three hundred and +sixty on such a mortgage." + +"Then give me my deed. The security is good, and I'm not willing to +pay more than seven per cent." + +Old Crowl looked a moment at her resolute face, beautiful even in its +pallor and pain, and a new thought seemed to strike him. + +"Well, well," said he, with an awkward show of gallantry, "one can't +do business with a pretty girl as with a man. You shall make your own +terms." + +"I wish to make no terms whatever," said Edith, frigidly. "I only +expect what is right and just." + +"And I'm the man that'll do what's right and just when appealed to by +the fair unfortunate," said Mr. Crowl, with a wave of his hand. + +Edith's only response to this sentiment was a frown, and an impatient +tapping of the floor with her foot. + +"Now, see how I trust you," he continued, filling out a check. "There +is the money. I'll draw up the papers, and you may sign them at your +leisure. Only just put your name to this receipt, which gives the +nature of our transaction;" and, in a scrawling hand, he soon stated +the case. + +It was with strong misgivings that Edith took the money and gave her +signature, but she did not see what else to do, and she was already +very weary. + +"You may call again the first time you are in the village, and by that +time I'll have things fixed up. You see now what it is to have a +friend in need." + +Edith's only reply was a bow, and she hastened to the bank. The +cashier looked curiously at her, and as he saw Crowl's check, smiled a +little significant smile which she did not like; but, at her request, +he placed the amount, and what was left from the second sale of +jewelry, to her credit, and gave her a small check-book. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SCORN AND KINDNESS + + + +Though her strength hardly seemed equal to it, she determined to go +and see Malcom, for she felt very grateful to him. And yet the little +time she had been in the village made her fear to speak to him or any +one again, and she almost felt that she would like to shrink into some +hidden place and die. + +Quiet, respectable Pushton had been dreadfully scandalized by Zell's +elopement with a man who by one brief visit had gained such bad +notoriety. Those who had stood aloof, surmised, and doubted about the +Allens before, now said, triumphantly, "I told you so." Good, kind, +Christian people were deeply pained that such a thing could have +happened; and it came to be the general opinion that the Allens were +anything but an acquisition to the neighborhood. + +"If they are going to bring that style of men here, the sooner they +move away the better," was a frequent remark. All save the "baser +sort" shrank from having much to do with them, and again Edith was +insulted by the bold advances of some brazen clerks and shop-boys as +she passed along. She also saw significant glances and whisperings, +and once or twice detected a pointing finger. + +With cheeks burning with shame and knees trembling with weakness, she +reached Malcom's gate, to which she clung panting for a moment, and +then passed in. The little man had his coat off, and, stooping in his +strawberry-bed, he did look very small indeed. Edith approached quite +near before he noticed her. He suddenly straightened himself up almost +as a jumping-jack might, and gave her a sharp, surprised look. He had +heard the gossip in several distorted forms, but what hurt him most +was that she did not come or send to him. But when he saw her standing +before him with her head bent down like a moss-rosebud wilting in the +sun, when he met her timid, deprecating glance, his soft heart +relented instantly, and coming toward her he said: + +"An' ha' ye coom to see ould Malcom at last? What ha' I dune that I +suld be sae forgotten?" + +"You were not forgotten, Mr. McTrump. God knows that I have too few +friends to forget the best of them," answered Edith, in a voice of +tremulous pathos. + +After that Malcom was wax in her hands, and with moistened eyes he +stood gazing at her in undisguised admiration. + +"I have been through deep trouble, Mr. McTrump," continued she, "and +perhaps you, like so many others, may think me not fit to speak to you +any more. Besides, I have been very sick, and really ought not to be +out to-day. Indeed I feel very weak. Isn't there some place where I +could sit down?" + +"Now God forgie me for an uncoo Highlander," cried Malcom, springing +forward, "to think that I suld let ye ston there, like a tall, white, +swayin' calla lily, in the rough wind. Take me arm till I support ye +to the best room o' me house." + +Edith did take and cling to it with the feeling of one ready to fall. + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump, you are too kind," she murmured. + +"Why suld I not be kind?" he said, heartily, "when I see ye nipt by +the wourld's unkindness? Why suld I not be kind? Is the rose there to +blame because a weed has grown alongside? Ye could na help it that the +wild bird flitted, and I heerd how ye roon like a brave lassie to stop +her. But the evil wourld is quick to see the bad and slow to see the +gude." And Malcom escorted her like a "leddy o' high degree" to his +little parlor, and there she told him and his wife all her trouble, +and Malcom seemed afflicted with a sudden cold in his head. Then Mrs. +McTrump bustled in and out in a breezy eagerness to make her +comfortable. + +"Ye're a stranger in our toon," she said, "and sae I was once mysel, +an' I ken how ye feel." + +"An' the Gude Book, which I hope ye read," added the gallant Malcom, +"says hoo in entertainin' a stranger ye may ha' an angel aroond." + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, with peony-like face, "Hannibal is the +only one who calls me that, and he doesn't know any better." + +"Why suld he know ony better?" responded Malcom quickly. "I ha' never +seen an angel, na mair than I ha' seen a goolden harp, but I'm a +thinkin' a modest bonny lassie like yoursel cooms as near to ane as +anything can in this world." + +"But, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, with a half-pathetic, half-comic face, +"I am in such deep trouble that I shall soon grow old and wrinkled, so +I shall not be an angel long." + +"Na, na, dinna say that," said Malcom earnestly. "An ye will, ye may +keepit the angel a-growin' within ye alway, though ye live as old as +Methuselah. D'ye see this wee brown seed? There's a mornin'-glory vine +hidden in it, as would daze your een at the peep o' day wi' its gay +blossoms. An' ye see my ould gudewife there? Ah, she will daze the een +o' the greatest o' the earth in the bright springtime o' the +Resurrection; and though I'm a little mon here, it may be I'll see +o'er the heads of soom up there." + +"An ye had true humeelity ye'd be a-hopin' to get there, instead of +expectin' to speir o'er the heads o' yer betters," said his wife in a +rebuking tone. + +"'A-hopin' to get there'!" said Malcom with some warmth. "Why suld I +hope when 'I _know_ that my Redeemer liveth'?" + +Edith's eyes filled with wistful tears, for the quaint talk of these +old people suggested a hope and faith that she knew nothing of. But, +in a low voice, she said, "Why does God let his creatures suffer so +much?" + +"Bless your heart, puir child, He suffered mair than ony on us," said +Malcom tenderly. "But ye'll learn it a' soon. He who fed the famishin' +would bid ye eat noo. But wait a bit till ye see what I'll bring ye." + +In a moment he was back with a dainty basket of Triomphe de Gand +strawberries, and Edith uttered an exclamation of delight as she +inhaled their delicious aroma. + +"They are the first ripe the season, an' noo see what the gudewife +will do with them." + +Soon their hulls were off, and, swimming in a saucer of cream, they +were added to the dainty little lunch that Mrs. McTrump had prepared. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Edith, drawing a long breath, "you can't know how you +ease my poor sore heart. I began to think all the world was against +me." + +At this Malcom beat such a precipitate retreat that he half stumbled +over a chair, but outside the door he ventured to say: + +"An ye coom out I'll cut ye a posy before ye go." But Edith saw him +rub his rough sleeve across his eyes as he passed the window. His wife +said, in a grave gentle tone: + +"Would ye might learn to know Him who said, 'Be of good cheer, I have +overcome the wourld.'" + +Edith shook her head sadly, and said, "I don't understand Him, and He +seems far off." + +"It's only seemin', me dear," said the old woman kindly, "but, as +Malcom says, ye'll learn it a' by and by." + +Mrs. McTrump was one of those simple souls who never presume to "talk +religion" to any one. "I can ony venture what I hope'll be a 'word in +season' noo and then, as the Maister gies me a chance," she would say +to her husband. + +Though she did not know it, she had spread before Edith a Gospel +feast, and her genuine, hearty sympathy was teaching more than +eloquent sermons could have done, and already the grateful girl was +questioning: + +"What makes these people differ so from others?" + +With some dismay she saw how late it was growing, and hastened out to +Malcom, who had cut an exquisite little bouquet for her, and had +another basket of berries for her to take to her mother. + +"Mr. McTrump," said Edith, "it's time we had a settlement; your +kindness I never can repay, but I am able now to carry out my +agreement." + +"Don't bother me wi' that noo," said Malcom, rather testily. "I ha' no +time to make oot your account in the height o' the season. Let it ston +till I ha' time. An' ye might help me soomtimes make up posies far the +grand folk at the hotel. But how does your garden sin ye dismissed +ould Malcom?" + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, slyly, "do you know you almost scared +old Hannibal out of his wits by the wonders you wrought last night or +this morning in that same garden you inquire about so innocently. How +can you work so fast and hard?" + +"The woonders I wrought! Indeed I've not been near the garden sin ye +told me not to coom. Ye could hardly expect otherwise of a Scotchman." + +"Who, then, could it be?" said Edith, a little startled herself now, +and she explained the mystery of the garden. + +He was as nonplussed as herself, but, scratching his bushy head, he +said, with a canny look, "I wud be glad if Hannibal's 'spook,' as he +ca's it, would eoom doon and hoe a bit for me," and Edith was so +cheered and refreshed that she could even join him in the laugh. + +They sent her away enveloped in the fragrance of strawberries and +roses from the little basket she carried. But the more grateful aroma +of human sympathy seemed to create a buoyant atmosphere around her; +and she passed back through the village strengthened and armed against +the cold or scornful looks of those who, knowing her to be "wounded," +had not even the grace to pass by indifferently "on the other side." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A HORROR OF GREAT DARKNESS + + + +By the time Edith reached home the transient strength and transient +brightening of the skies seemed to pass away. Her mother was no better +and the poor girl saw too plainly the grisly spectres, care, want, and +shame upon her hearth, to fear any good fairy that left such traces as +she saw in her garden. But the mystery troubled her; she longed to +know who it was. As she mused upon it on her way home, Arden Lacey +suddenly occurred to her, and there was a glimmer of a smile and a +faint increase of color on her pale face. But she did not suggest her +suspicion to Hannibal, when he eagerly asked if it were Malcom. + +"No, strange to say, it was not," said Edith. "Who could it have +been?" + +Hannibal's face fell, and he looked very solemn. "Sumpen awful's gwine +to happen, Miss Edie," he said, in a sepulchral tone. + +Edith broke into a sudden reckless laugh, and said, "I think something +awful is happening about as fast as it can. But never mind, Hannibal, +we'll watch to-night, and perhaps he will come again." + +"Oh, Miss Edie, I'se hope you'll 'scuse me. I couldn't watch for a +spook to save my life. I'se gwine to bed as soon as it's dark, and +cover up my head till mornin'." + +"Very well," said Edith, quietly. "I'm going to sit up with mother to-night, and if it comes again, I'll see it." + +"De good Lord keep you safe, Miss Edie," said Hannibal, tremblingly. +"You'se know I'd die for you in a minit; but I'se couldn't wateh for a +spook nohow," and Hannibal crept away, looking as if the very worst +had now befallen them. + +Edith was too weary and sad even to smile at the absurd superstition +of her old servant, for with her practical, positive nature she could +scarcely understand how even the most ignorant could harbor such +delusions. She said to Laura, "Let me sleep till nine o'clock, and +then I will watch till morning." + +Laura did not waken her till ten. + +After Edith had shaken off her lethargy, she said, "Why, Laura, you +look ready to faint!" + +With a despairing little cry, Laura threw herself on the floor, and +buried her face in her sister's lap, sobbing: + +"I am ready to faint--body and soul. Oh, Edie, Edie, what shall we do? +Oh, that I were sure death was an eternal sleep, as some say! How +gladly I would close my eyes to-night and never wish to open them +again! My heart is ashes, and my hope is dead. And yet I am afraid to +die, and more afraid to live. Ever since--Zell--went--the future has +been--a terror to me. Edith," she continued, after a moment, in a low +voice, that trembled and was full of dread, "Zell has not written--the +silence of the grave seems to have swallowed her. _He has not married +her!_" and an agony of grief convulsed Laura's slight frame. + +Edith's eyes grew hard and tearless, and she said sternly, "It were +better the grave had swallowed her than such a gulf of infamy." + +Laura suddenly became still, her sobs ceasing. Slowly she raised such +a white, terror-stricken face, that Edith was startled. She had never +seen her elder sister, once so stately and proud, then so apathetic, +moved like this. + +"Edith," she said, in an awed whisper, "what is there before us? +Zell's, flight, like a flash of lightning, has revealed to me where we +stand, and ever since I have brooded over our situation, till it seems +as if I shall go mad. There's an awful gulf before us, and every day +we are being pushed nearer to it;" and Laura's large blue eyes were +dilated with horror, as if she saw it. + +"Mother is going to die," she continued, in a tone that chilled +Edith's soul. "Our money will soon be gone; we then shall be driven +away even from this poor shelter, out upon the streets--to New York, +or somewhere. Edith, Oh, Edith, don't you see the gulf? What else is +before us?" + +"Honest work is before me," said Edith, almost fiercely. "I will +compel the world to give me a place entitled at least to respect." + +Laura shook her head despairingly. "You may struggle back and up to +where you are safe. You are good and strong. But there are so many +poor girls in the world like me, who are not good and strong! +Everything seems to combine to push a helpless, friendless woman +toward that gulf. Poor rash, impulsive Zell saw it, and could not +endure the slow, remorseless pressure, as one might be driven over a +precipice, and one she loved seemed to stand ready to break the fall. +I understand her stony, reckless face now." + +"Oh, Laura, hush!" said Edith, desperately. + +"I must speak," she went on, in the same low voice, so full of dread, +"or my brain will burst. I have thought and thought, and seen that +awful gulf grow nearer and nearer, till at times it seemed as if I +should shriek with terror. For two nights I have not slept. Oh! why +were we not taught something better than dressing and dancing, and +those hollow, superficial accomplishments that only mock us now? Why +were not my mind and body developed into something like strength? I +would gladly turn to the coarsest drudgery, if I could only be safe. +But after what has happened no good people will have anything to do +with us, and I am a feeble, helpless creature, that can only shrink +and tremble as I am pushed nearer and nearer." + +Edith seemed turning into stone, herself paralyzed by Laura's despair. +After a moment Laura continued, with a perceptible shudder in her +voice: + +"There is no one to break my fall. Oh, that I was not afraid to die! +That seems the only resource to such as I, If I could just end it all +by becoming nothing--" + +"Laura, Laura," cried Edith, starting up, "cease your wild mad words. +You are sick and morbid. You are more delirious than mother is. We can +get work; there are good people who will take care of us." + +"I have seen nothing that looks like it," said Laura, in the same +despairing tone. "I have read of just such things, and I see how it +all must end." + +"Yes, that's just it," said Edith, impatiently. "You have read so many +wild, unnatural stories of life that you are ready to believe anything +that is horrible. Listen: I have over four hundred dollars in the +bank." + +"How did you get it?" asked Laura, quickly. + +"I have followed mother's suggestion, and mortgaged the place." + +Laura sank into a chair, and became so deathly white that Edith +thought she would faint. At last she gasped: + +"Don't you see? Even you in your strength can't help yourself. You are +being pushed on, too. You said you would not follow mother's advice +again, because it always led to trouble. You said, again and again, +you would not mortgage the place, and yet you have done it. Now it's +all clear. That mortgage will be foreclosed, and then we shall be +turned out, and then--" and she covered her face with her hands. +"Don't you see," she said, in a muffled tone, "the great black hand +reaching out of the darkness and pushing us down and nearer? Oh, that +I wasn't afraid to die!" + +Edith was startled. Even her positive, healthful nature began to yield +to the contagion of Laura's morbid despair. She felt that she must +break the spell and be alone. By a strong effort she tried to speak in +her natural tone and with confidence. She tried to comfort the +desperate woman by endearing epithets, as if she were a child. She +spoke of those simple restoratives which are so often and vainly +prescribed for mortal wounds, sleep and rest. + +"Go to bed, poor child," she urged. "All will look differently in the +sunlight to-morrow." + +But Laura scarcely seemed to heed her. With weak, uncertain steps she +drew near the bed, and turned the light on her mother's thin, flushed +face, and stood, with clasped hands, looking wistfully at her. + +"Yes, my dear," muttered Mrs. Allen in her delirium, "both your father +and myself would give our full approval to your marriage with Mr. +Goulden." The poor woman made watching doubly hard to her daughters, +since she kept recalling to them the happy past in all its minutiae. + +Laura turned to Edith with a smile that was inexpressibly sad, and +said, "What a mockery it all is! There seems nothing real in this +world but pain and danger. Oh, that I was not afraid to die!" + +"Laura, Laura! go to your rest," exclaimed Edith, "or you will lose +your reason. Come;" and she half carried the poor creature to her +room. "Now, leave the door ajar," she said, "for if mother is worse I +will call you." + +Edith sat down to her weary task as a watcher, and never before, in +all the sad preceding weeks, had her heart been so heavy, and so +prophetic of evil, Laura's words kept repeating themselves to her, and +mingling with those of her mother's delirium, thus strangely blending +the past and the present. Could it be true that they were helpless in +the hands of a cruel, remorseless fate, that was pushing them down? +Could it be true that all her struggles and courage would be in vain, +and that each day was only bringing them nearer to the desperation of +utter want? She could not disguise from herself that Laura's dreadful +words had a show of reason, and that, perhaps, the mortgage she had +given that day meant that they would soon be without home or shelter +in the great, pitiless world. But, with set teeth and white face, she +muttered: + +"Death first." + +Then, with a startled expression, she anxiously asked herself: "Was +that what Laura meant when she kept saying, 'Oh, if I wasn't afraid to +die!'" She went to her sister's door and listened. Laura's movements +within seemed to satisfy her, and she returned to the sick-room and +sat down again. Putting her hand upon her heart, she murmured: + +"I am completely unnerved to-night. I don't understand myself;" and +she looked almost as pale and despairing as Laura. + +She was, in truth, in the midst of that "horror of great darkness" +that comes to so many struggling souls in a world upon which the +shadow of sin rests so heavily. + + + + +CHAPTER XXYI + +FRIEND AND SAVIOUR + + + +Knowing of no other source of help than an earthly one, her thoughts +reverted to the old Scotch people whom she had recently visited. Their +sunlighted garden, and happy, homely life, their simple faith, seemed +the best antidote for her present morbid tendencies. + +"If the worst comes to the worst, I think they would take us in for a +little while, till some way opened," she thought. "Oh that I had their +belief in a better life! Then it wouldn't seem so dreadful to suffer +in this one. Why have I never read the 'Gude Book,' as they call it? +But I never seemed to understand it; still, I must say, that I never +really tried to. Perhaps God is angry with us, and is punishing us for +so forgetting Him. I would rather think that than to feel so forgotten +and lost sight of. It seems as if God didn't see or care. It seems as +if I could cling to the harshest father in the world, if he would only +protect and help me. A God of wrath, that I have heard clergymen +preach of, is not so dreadful to me as a God who forgets, and leaves +His creatures to struggle alone. Our minister was so cold and +philosophical, and presented a God that seemed so far off, that I felt +there could never be anything between Him and me. He talked about a +holy, infinite Being, who dwelt alone in unapproachable majesty; and I +want some one to stoop down and love and help poor little me. He +talked about a religion of purity and good works, and love to our +fellow-men. I don't know how to work for myself, much less for others, +and it seems as if nearly all my fellow-creatures hated and scorned +me, and I am afraid of them; so I don't see what chance there is for +such as we. If we had only remained rich, and lived on the avenue, +such a religion wouldn't be so hard. It seems strange that the Bible +should teach him and old Malcom so differently. But I suppose he is +wiser, and understands it better. Perhaps it's the flowers that teach +Malcom, for he always seems drawing lessons from them." + +Then came the impulse to get the Bible and read it for herself. "The +impulse!" whence did it come? + +When Edith felt so orphaned and alone, forgotten even of God, then the +Divine Father was nearest his child. When, in her bitter extremity, at +this lonely midnight hour she realized her need and helplessness as +never before, her great Elder Brother was waiting beside her. + +The impulse was divine. The Spirit of God was leading her as He is +seeking to lead so many. It only remained for her to follow these +gentle impulses, not to be pushed into the black gulf that despairing +Laura dreaded, but to be led into the deep peace of a loving faith. + +She went down into the parlor to get the Bible that in her hands had +revealed the falseness and baseness of Gus Elliot, and the thought +flashed through her mind like a good omen, "This book stood between me +and evil once before." She took it to the light and rapidly turned its +pages, trying to find some clew, some place of hope, for she was sadly +unfamiliar with it. + +Was it her trembling fingers alone that turned the pages? No; He who +inspired the guide she consulted guided her, for soon her eyes fell +upon the sentence-- + +"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest." + +The words came with such vivid power and meaning that she was +startled, and looked around as if some one had spoken to her. They so +perfectly met her need that it seemed they must be addressed directly +to her. + +"Who was it that said these words, and what right had he to say them?" +she queried eagerly, and keeping her finger on the passage as if it +might be a clew out of some fatal labyrinth, she turned the leaves +backward and read more of Him with the breathless interest that some +poor burdened soul might have felt eighteen centuries ago in listening +to a rumor of the great Prophet who had suddenly appeared with signs +and wonders in Palestine. Then she turned and read again and again the +sweet words that first arrested her attention. They seemed more +luminous and hope-inspiring every moment, as their significance dawned +upon her like the coming of day after night. + +Her clear, positive mind could never take a vague, dubious impression +of anything, and with a long-drawn breath she said, with the emphasis +of perfect conviction: + +"If He were a mere man, as I have been taught to believe, He had no +right to say these words. It would be a bitter, wicked mockery for man +or angel to speak them. Oh, can it be that it was God Himself in human +guise? I could trust such a God." + +With glowing cheeks and parted lips, she resumed her reading, and in +her eyes was the growing light of a great hope. + +The upper room of that poor little cottage was becoming a grand and +sacred place. Heaven, that honors the deathless soul above all +localities, was near. The God who was not in the vast and gold-incrusted temple on Mount Moriah sat in humble guise at "Jacob's +well," and said to one of His poor guilty creatures: "I that speak +unto thee am He." Cathedral domes and cross-tipped spires indicated +the Divine presence on every hand in superstitious Rome, but it would +seem that He was near only to a poor monk creeping up Pilate's +staircase. Though the wealth of the world should combine to build a +colossal church, filling it with every sacred emblem and symbol, and +causing its fretted roof to resound with unceasing choral service, it +would not be such a claim upon the great Father's heart as a weak, +pitiful cry to Him from the least of His children. Though Edith knew +it not, that Presence without which all temples are vain had come to +her as freely, as closely, as truly as when it entered the cottage at +Bethany, and Mary "sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word." Even to +her, in this night of trouble, in this stony wilderness of care and +fear, as to God's trembling servant of old, a ladder of light was let +down from heaven, and on it her faith would climb up to the peace and +rest that are above, and therefore undisturbed by the storms that rage +on earth. + +But it is God's way to make us free through truth. Christ, when on +earth, did not deal with men's souls as with their bodies. The latter +He touched into instantaneous cure; to the former He appealed with +patient instruction and entreaty, revealing Himself by word and deed, +and saying: In view of what I prove myself to be will you trust me? +Will you follow me? + +In words which, though spoken so long ago, are still the living +utterances of the Spirit to every seeking soul, He was now speaking to +Edith, and she listened with the wonder and hope that might have +stirred the heart of some sorrowing maiden like herself, when His +voice was accompanied by the musical chime of waves breaking on the +shores of Galilee, or the rustle of winds through the gray olive +leaves. + +Edith came to the source of all truth with a mind as fresh and +unprejudiced as that of one who saw and heard Jesus for the first +time, as, in his mission journeys, he entered some little town of the +Holy Land. She had never thought much about Him, and had no strong +preconceived opinions. She was almost utterly ignorant of the creeds +and symbols of men, and Christ was not to her, as He is to so many, +the embodiment of a system and the incarnation of a doctrine--a vague, +half-realized truth. When she thought of Him at all, it had been as a +great, good man, the most famous religious teacher in the past, whose +life had nobly "adorned a tale and pointed a moral." But this would +not answer anymore. "What could a man, dead and buried centuries ago, +do for me now?" she asked, bitterly. + +"I want one who can with right speak these words-- + +"'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest.'" + +And as, with finger still clinging to this passage, she read of +miracle and parable, now trembling almost under the "Sermon on the +Mount," now tearful under the tender story of the prodigal, the +feeling came in upon her soul like the rising tide, "This was not mere +man." + +Then, with an awe she had never felt before, she followed him to +Gethsemane, to the High Priest's palace, to Pilate's judgment-hall, +and thence to Golgotha, and it seemed to her one long "Via Dolorosa." +With white lips she murmured, with the centurion, "Truly this man was +the Son of God." + +She was reading the wonderful story for the first time in its true +connection, and the Spirit of God was her guide and teacher. When she +came to Mary "weeping without at the sepulchre," her own eyes were +streaming, and it seemed as if she were weeping there herself. + +But when Jesus said, in a tone perhaps never heard before or since in +this world, "Mary," it seemed that to herself He was speaking, and her +heart responded, "Rabboni--Master." + +She started up and paced the little room, thrilling with excitement. + +"How blind I have been!" she exclaimed--"how utterly blind! Here I +have been struggling alone all these weary weeks, with scarcely hope +for this world and none for the next, when I might have had _such_ a +friend and helper all the time. Can I be deceived? Can this sweet way +of light out of our thick darkness be a delusion?" + +She went to where her little Bible lay open at the passage, "Come unto +me," and bowing her head upon it, pleaded as simply and sincerely as +the Syro-Phoenician mother pleaded for her child in the very presence +of the human Saviour-- + +"O Jesus, I am heavily laden. I labor under burdens greater than I can +bear. Divine Saviour, help me." + +In answer she expected some vague exaltation of soul, of an exquisite +sense of peace, as the burden was rolled away. + +There was nothing of the kind, but only an impulse to go to Laura. She +was deeply disappointed. She seemed to have climbed such a lofty +height that she might almost look into heaven and confirm her faith +forever, and only a simple earthly duty was revealed to her. Her +excited mind, that had been expanding with the divinest mysteries, was +reacting into quietness, and the impression was so strong that she +must go to Laura, that she thought her sister had been calling her, +and she, in her intense preoccupation, had heard her as in a dream. + +Still keeping the little Bible in her hand, she went to Laura's room. +Through the partially open door she saw, with a sudden chill of fear, +that the bed had not been slept in. Pushing the door open, she looked +eagerly around with a strange dread growing upon her. Laura was +writing at a table with her back toward the entrance. There was a +strong odor of laudanum in the room, and a horrible thought blanched +Edith's cheek. Stealing with noiseless tread across the intervening +space, with hand pressed upon her heart to still its wild throbbings, +she looked over her sister's shoulder, and followed the tracings of +her pen with dilating eyes. + +"Mother, Edith, farewell! When you read these sad words I shall be +dead. I fear death--I cannot tell you how I fear it, but I fear more +that dreadful gulf which daily grows nearer. I must die. There is no +other resource for a poor, weak woman like me. If I were only strong--if I had only been taught something--but I am helpless. Do not be too +hard upon poor little Zell. Her eyes were blinded by a false love; she +did not see the black gulf as I see it. If God cares for what such +poor forlorn creatures as I do, may He forgive. I have thought till my +brain reels. I have tried to pray, but hardly knew what I was praying +to. I don't understand God--He is far off. The world scorns us. There +is none to help. There is no other remedy save the drug at my side, +which will soon bring sleep which I hope will be dreamless. Farewell! + +"Your poor, trembling, despairing LAURA." + +Every sentence was written with a sigh that seemed as if it might be +the last that the burdened soul could, give, and every line was +blotted with tears. Edith saw that the poor, thin face was pinched and +wan with misery, and that the pallor of death had already blanched +even her lips, and, with a shudder of horror, her eyes fell on a phial +of laudanum at Laura's left hand, from which she was partially turned +away, in the act of writing. + +With an ecstatic thrill of joy, she now understood how her prayer had +been answered. How could there have been rest--how could there have +been peace--if this awful tragedy had been consummated? + +With one devout, grateful glance upward, she silently took away the +fatal drug, and laid her Bible down in its place. + +Laura finished her letter, leaned back, and murmured a long, +trembling, "Farewell!" that was like a low, mournful vibration of an +Aeolian harp, when the night-breeze breathes upon it. Then she pressed +her right hand over her eyes, shuddered, and tremblingly put out her +left for that which would end all. But, instead of the phial which she +had placed there but a little before, her hand rested upon a book. +Startled, she opened her eyes, and saw not the dreaded poison, but in +golden letters that seemed luminous to her dazzled sight: + +HOLY BIBLE. + +Though all had lasted but a brief moment, Edith's power of self-control was gone. Dashing the bottle on the floor, where it broke into +many fragments, she threw herself on her sister's neck and sobbed: + +"O Laura, Laura! your hand is on a better remedy. It has saved me--it +can save you. It has shown me the Friend we need. He sent me to you;" +and she clung to her sister in a rapture of joy, murmuring, with every +breath: + +"Thanks, thanks, eternal gratitude! I see how my prayer is answered +now." + +Laura, in her shattered condition, was too bewildered and feeble to do +more than cling to Edith, with a blessed sense of being rescued from +some great peril. A horrid spell seemed broken, and for some reason, +she knew not why, life and hope were still possible. A torrent of +tears seemed to relieve her of the dreadful oppression that had so +long rested on her, and at last she faltered: + +"Who is this strange friend?" + +"His name is Jesus--Saviour," said Edith, in a low, reverential tone. + +"I don't quite understand," said Laura, hesitatingly. "I can only +cling to you till I know Him." + +"He knows you, Laura, and loves you. He has never forgotten us. It was +we who forgot Him. He sent me to you, just in time. Now put your hand +on this book, and promise me you will never think of such an awful +thing again." + +"I promise," said Laura, solemnly; "not if I am in my right mind. I +don't understand myself. You seem to have awakened me from a fearful +dream. I will do just what you tell me to." + +"Oh, Laura, let us both try to do just what our Divine Friend tells us +to do." + +"Perhaps, through you, I shall learn to know Him. I can only cling to +you to-night," said Laura, wearily, "I am so tired," and her eyes +drooped as she spoke. + +With a sense of security came a strong reaction in her overtaxed +nature. Edith helped her to bed as if she were a child, and soon she +was sleeping as peacefully as one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MYSTERY SOLVED + + + +Edith resumed her watching in her mother's room. The invalid was still +dwelling on the past, and her delirium appeared to Edith a true emblem +of her old, unreal life. Indeed, it seemed to her that she had never +lived before. A quiet but divine exaltation filled her soul. She did +not care to read any more, but just sat still and thought, and her +spiritual light grew clearer and clearer. + +Her faith was very simple, her knowledge very slight. She was scarcely +in advance of a Hebrew maiden who might have been one of the mournful +procession passing out of the gates of Nain, when a Stranger, unknown +before, revealed Himself by turning death into life, sorrow into joy. +The eye of her faith was fastened on the distinct, living, loving +personality of our human yet Divine Friend, who no longer seemed afar +off, but as near as to that other burdened one who touched the hem of +His garment. + +"He does not change, the Bible says," she thought. "He cannot change. +Therefore He will help me, just as surely as He did the poor, +suffering people among whom He lived." + +It was but three o'clock, and yet the eastern sky was pale with dawn. +At length her attention was gained by a faint but oft-repeated sound. +It seemed to come from the direction of the garden, and at once the +mystery that so oppressed poor Hannibal occurred to her. She rose, and +passed back to her own room, which overlooked the garden, and, through +the lattice, in the faint morning twilight, saw a tall, dusky figure, +that looked much too substantial to be any such shadowy being as the +old negro surmised, and the strokes of his hoe were too vigorous and +noisy for ghostly gardening. + +"It must be Arden Lacey," thought Edith, "but I will put this matter +beyond all doubt. I don't like this night work, either; though for +different reasons than those of poor Hannibal. We have suffered enough +from scandal already, and henceforth all connected with my life shall +be as open as the day. Then, if the world believes evil of me, it will +be because it likes it best." + +These thoughts passed through her mind while she hastily threw off her +wrapper and dressed. Cautiously opening the back-door, she looked +again. The nearer view and clearer light revealed to her Arden Lacey. +She did not fear him, and at once determined to question him as to the +motive of his action. He was but a little way off, and was tying up a +grape-vine that had been neglected, his back being toward her. Edith +had great physical courage and firmness naturally, and it seemed that +on this morning she could fear nothing, in the strength of her new-born enthusiasm. + +With noiseless step she reached his side, and asked, almost sternly: + +"Who are you, sir; and what does this action mean?" + +Arden started violently, trembled like the leaves in the morning wind, +and turned slowly toward her, feeling more guilty and alarmed than if +he had been playing the part of a burglar, instead of acting as her +good genius. + +"Why don't you answer?" she asked, in still more decided tones. "By +what right are you doing this work?" + +Edith had lost faith in men. She knew little of Arden, and the thought +flashed through her mind, "This may be some new plot against us." +Therefore her manner was stern and almost threatening. + +Poor Aden was startled out of all self-control, Edith's coming was so +sudden and unexpected, and her pale face was so spirit-like, that for +a moment he scarcely knew whether the constant object of his thoughts +was really before him, or whether his strong imagination was only +mocking him. + +Edith mistook his agitation and hesitancy as evidences of guilt, and +he so far recovered himself as to recognize her suspicions. + +"I will be answered. You shall speak the truth," she said, +imperiously. "By what right are you doing this work?" + +Then his own proud, passionate spirit flamed up, and looking her +unblenchingly in the face, he replied: + +"The right of my great love for you. Can I not serve my idol?" + +An expression of deep pain and repulsion came out upon Edith's face, +and he saw it. The avowal of his love was so abrupt--indeed it was +almost stern; and, coming thus from quite a stranger, who had little +place even in her thoughts, it was so exceedingly painful that it was +like a blow. And yet she hardly knew how to answer him, for she saw in +his open, manly face, his respectful manner, that he meant no evil, +however he might err through ignorance or feeling. + +He seemed to wait for her to speak again, and his face, from being +like the eastern sky, became very pale. From recent experience, and +the teachings of the Patient One, Edith's heart was very tender toward +anything that looked like suffering, and though she deemed Arden's +feeling but the infatuation of a rude and ill-regulated mind, she +could not be harsh, now that all suspicion of evil designs was +banished. Therefore she said quietly, and almost kindly: + +"You have done wrong, Mr. Lacey. Remember I have no father or brother +to protect me. The world is too ready to take up evil reports, and +your strange action might be misunderstood. All transactions with me +must be like the sunlight." + +With an expression of almost anguish, Arden bowed his head before her, +and groaned: + +"Forgive me; I did not think." + +"I am sure you meant no harm," said Edith, with real kindness now in +her tone. "You would not knowingly make the way harder for a poor girl +that has too much already to struggle against. And now, good-by. I +shall trust to your sense of honor, assured that you will treat me as +you would wish your own sister dealt with;" and she vanished, leaving +Arden so overwhelmed with contending emotions that he could scarcely +make his way home. + +An hour later Edith heard Hannibal's step downstairs, and she at once +joined him. The old man had aged in a night, and his face had a more +worn and hopeless look than had yet rested upon it. He trembled at the +rustle of her dress, and called: + +"Miss Edie, am dat you?" + +"Yes, you foolish old fellow. I have seen your spook, and ordered it +not to come here again unless I send you for it." + +"Oh, Miss Edie!" gasped Hannibal. + +"It's Arden Lacey." + +Hannibal collapsed. He seemed to drop out of the realm of the +supernatural to the solid ground of fact with a heavy thump. + +He sank into a chair, regarding her first with a blank, vacant face, +which gradually became illumined with a knowing grin. In a low, +chuckling voice, he said: + +"I jes declar to you I'se struck all of a heap. I jes done see whar de +possum is dis minute. What an ole black fool I was, sure 'nuff. I +tho't he'se de mos 'bligin man I eber seed afore," and he told her how +Arden had served her in her illness. + +She was divided between amusement and annoyance, the latter +predominating. Hannibal concluded impressively: + +"Miss Edie, it must be lub. Nothin' else dan dat which so limbered up +my ole jints could get any livin' man ober as much ground as he hoed +dat night." + +"Hush, Hannibal," said Edith, with dignity; "and remember that this is +a secret between ourselves. Moreover, I wish you never to ask Mr. +Lacey to do anything for us if it can possibly be helped, and never +without my knowledge." + +"You knows well, Miss Edie, dat you'se only to speak and it's done," +said Hannibal, deprecatingly. + +She gave him such a gentle, grateful look that the old man was almost +ready to get down on his knees before her. Putting her hand on his +shoulder, she said: + +"What a good, faithful, old friend you are! You don't know how much I +love you, Hannibal;" and she returned to her mother. + +Hannibal rolled up his eyes and clasped his hands, as if before his +patron saint, saying, under his breath: + +"De idee of her lubing ole black Hannibal! I could die dis blessed +minute," which was his way of saying, "_Nunc dimittis_." + +Laura slept quietly till late in the afternoon, and wakened as if to a +new and better life. Her manner was almost child-like. She had lost +all confidence in herself, and seemed to wish to be controlled by +Edith in all things, as a little child might be. But she was very +feeble. + +As the morning advanced Edith grew exceedingly weary. Reaction from +her strong excitement seemed to bear her down in a weakness and +lethargy that she could not resist, and by ten o'clock she felt that +she must have some relief. It came from an unexpected source, for +Hannibal appeared with a face of portentous solemnity, saying that +Mrs. Lacey was downstairs, and that she wished to know if she could do +something to help. + +The mother's quick eye saw that something had deeply moved and was +troubling her son. Indeed, for some time past, she had seen that into +his unreal world had come a reality that was a source of both pain and +pleasure, of fear and hope. While she followed him every hour of the +day with an unutterable sympathy, she silently left him to open his +heart to her in his own time and manner. But her tender, wistful +manner told Arden that he was understood, and he preferred this tacit +sympathy to any spoken words. But this morning the evidence of his +mental distress was so apparent that she went to him, placed her hands +upon his shoulders, and with her grave, earnest eyes looking straight +into his, asked: + +"Arden, what can I do for you?" + +"Mother," he said, in a low tone, "there are sickness and deep trouble +at our neighbors'. Will you go to them again?" + +"Yes, my son," she replied, simply, "as soon as I can get ready." + +So she arranged matters to stay if needed, and thus in Edith's +extremity she appeared. In view of Arden's words, Edith hardly knew +how to receive her or what to do. But when she saw the plain, grave +woman sitting before her in the simple dignity of patient sorrow, her +course seemed clear. She instinctively felt that she could trust this +offered friendliness, and that she needed it. + +"I have heard that your mother has been sick as well as yourself," +Mrs. Lacey said kindly but quietly. "You look very worn and weary, +Miss Allen; and if I, as a neighbor, can watch in your place for a +while, I think you can trust me to do so." + +Tears sprang into Edith's eyes, and she said, with sudden color coming +into her pale face, "You take noble revenge for the treatment you have +received from us, and I gratefully submit to it. I must confess I have +reached the limit of my endurance; my sister is ill also, and yet +mother needs constant attention." + +"Then I am very glad I came, and I have left things at home so I can +stay," and she laid aside her wraps with the air of one who sees a +duty plainly and intends to perform it. Edith gave her the doctor's +instructions a little incoherently in her utter exhaustion, but the +experienced matron understood all, and said: + +"I think I know just what to do. Sleep till you are well rested." + +Edith went to her room, and, with her face where the sweet June air +could breathe directly upon it through the open window, sleep came +with a welcome and refreshing balm that she had never known before. +Her last thought was, "He will take care of me and mine." + +She had left the door leading into the sick-room open, and Mrs. Lacey +stepped in once and looked at her. The happy, trustful thought with +which she had closed her eyes had left a faint smile upon her face, +and given it a sweet spiritual beauty. + +"She seems very different from what I supposed," murmured Mrs. Lacey. +"She is very different from what people are imagining her. Perhaps +Arden, poor boy, is nearer right than all of us. Oh, I hope she is +good, whether he ever marries her or not, for this love will be the +saving or ruining of him." + +When Edith awoke it was dark, and she started up in dismay, for she +had meant to sleep but an hour or two. Having hastily smoothed her +hair, she went to the sick-room, and found Laura reclining on the +sofa, and talking in the most friendly manner to Mrs. Lacey. Her +mother's delirium continued, though it was more quiet, with snatches +of sleep intervening, but she noticed no one as yet. Mrs. Lacey sat +calmly in her chair, her sad, patient face making the very ideal of a +watcher, and yet in spite of her plain exterior there was a +refinement, an air of self-respect, that would impress the most casual +observer. As soon as Laura saw Edith she rose as quickly as her +feebleness permitted, and threw her arms around her sister, and there +was an embrace whose warmth and meaning none but themselves, and the +pitying eye of Him who saved, could understand. Then Edith turned and +said, earnestly: + +"Truly, Mrs. Lacey, I did not intend to trespass on your kindness in +this manner. I hope you will forgive me." + +"Nature knew what was best for you, Miss Allen, and have not incommoded +me at all. I made my plans to stay till nine o'clock, and then Arden +will come for me." + +"Miss Edie," said Hannibal, in his loud whisper, "I'se got some supper +for you down here." + +Why did Edith go to her room and make a little better toilet before +going down? She hardly thought herself. It was probably a feminine +instinct. As she took her last sip of tea there was a timid knock at +the door. "I will see him a moment," she decided. + +Hannibal, with a gravity that made poor Edith smile in her thoughts, +admitted Arden Lacey. He was diffident but not awkward, and the color +deepened in his face, then left it very pale, as he saw Edith was +present. Her pale cheek also took the faintest tinge of pink, but she +rose quietly, and said: + +"Please be seated, Mr. Lacey. I will tell your mother you are here." +Then, as Hannibal disappeared, she added earnestly, "I do appreciate +your mother's kindness, and--yours also. At the same time, too deep a +sense of obligation is painful; you must not do so much for us. Please +do not misunderstand me." + +Arden had something of his mother's quiet dignity, as he rose and held +out to Edith a letter, saying: + +"Will you please read that--you need not answer it--and then perhaps +you will understand me better." + +Edith hesitated, and was reluctant. + +"I may be doing wrong," continued he, earnestly and with rising color. +"I am not versed in the world's ways; but is it not my right to +explain the rash words I uttered this morning? My good name is dear to +me also. Few care for it, but I would not have it utterly blurred in +your eyes. We may be strangers after you have read it, if you choose, +but I entreat you to read it." + +"You will not feel hurt if I afterward return it to you?" asked Edith, +timidly. + +"You may do with it what you please." + +She then took the letter, and a moment later Mrs. Lacey appeared, and +said: + +"I will sit up to-morrow night, with your permission." + +Edith took her hand, and replied, "Mrs. Lacey, you burden me with +kindness." + +"It is not my wish to burden, but to relieve you, Miss Allen. I think +I can safely say, from our slight acquaintance, that in the case of +sickness or trouble at a neighbor's, you would not spare yourself. We +cease to be human when we leave the too heavily burdened to struggle +alone." + +Edith's eyes grew moist, and she said, simply, "I cannot refuse +kindness offered in that spirit, and may God bless you for it. Good-night." + +Arden's only parting was a grave, silent bow. + +Edith was soon alone again, watching by her mother. With some natural +curiosity, she opened the letter that was written by one so different +from any man that she had ever known before. Its opening, at least, +was reassuring. + +"MISS EDITH ALLEN--You need not fear that I shall offend again by +either writing or speaking such rash words as those which so deeply +pained you this morning. They would not have been spoken then, perhaps +never, had I not been startled out of my self-control--had I not seen +that you suspected me of evil. I was very unwise, and I sincerely ask +your pardon. But I meant no wrong, and as you referred to my sister, I +can say, before God, that I would shield you as I would shield her. + +"I know little of the conventionalities of the world. I live but a +hermit's life in it, and my letter may seem to you very foolish and +romantic, still I know that my motives are not ignoble, and with this +consciousness I venture. + +"Reverencing and honoring you as I do, I cannot bear that you should +think too meanly of me. The world regards me as a sullen, stolid, +bearish creature, but I have almost ceased to care for its opinion. I +have received from it nothing but coldness and scorn, and I pay my +debt in like coin. But perhaps you can imagine why I cannot endure +that you should regard me in like manner. I would not have you think +my nature a stony, sterile place, when something tells me that it is +like a garden that needs only sunlight of some kind. My life has been +blighted by the wrong of another, who should have been my best helper. +The knowledge and university culture for which I thirsted were denied +me. And yet, believe me, only my mother's need--only the absolute +necessity that she and my sister should have a daily protector--kept +me from pushing out into the word, and trying to work my way unaided +to better things. Sacred duty has chained me down to a life that was +outwardly most sordid and unhappy. My best solace has been my mother's +love. But from varied, somewhat extensive, though perhaps not the +wisest kind of reading, I came to dwell in a brave, beautiful, but +shadowy world that I created out of books. I was becoming satisfied +with it, not knowing any other. The real world mocked and hurt me on +every side. It is so harsh and unjust that I hate it. I hate it +infinitely more as I see its disposition to wound you, who have been +so noble and heroic. In this dream of the past--in this unreal world +of my own fancy--I was living when you came that rainy night. As I +learned to know you somewhat, you seemed a beautiful revelation to me. +I did not think there was such a woman in existence. My shadows +vanished before you. With you living in the present, my dreams of the +past ceased. I could not prevent your image from entering my lonely, +empty heart, and taking its vacant throne, as if by divine right. How +could I? How can I drive you forth now, when my whole being is +enslaved? + +"But forgive me. Though thought and feeling are beyond control, +outward action is not. I hope never to lose a mastering grasp on the +rein of deeds and words; and though I cannot understand how the +feeling I have frankly avowed can ever change, I will try never, by +look or sign, to pain you with it again. + +"And yet, with a diffidence and fear equalled only by my sincerity and +earnestness, I would venture to ask one great favor. You said this +morning that you already had too much to struggle against. The future +has its possibilities of further trouble and danger. + +"Will you not let me be your humble, faithful friend, serving you +loyally, devotedly, yet unobtrusively, and with all the delicate +regard for your position which I am capable of showing, assured that +I will gratefully accept any hints when I am wrong or presumptuous? +I would gladly serve you with your knowledge and consent. But serve +you I must. I vowed it the night I lifted your unconscious form from +the wharf, and gave you into Mrs. Groody's care. There need be no +reply. You have only to treat me not as an utter stranger when we next +meet. You have only to give me the joy of doing something for you when +opportunity offers. + +"ARDEN LACEY." + +Edith's eyes filled with tears before she finished this most +unexpected epistle. Though rather quaint and stately in its diction, +the passion of a true, strong nature so permeated it all, that the +coldest and shallowest would have been moved. And yet a half-smile +played upon her face at the same time, like sunlight on drops of rain. + +"Thank heaven!" she said, "I know of one more true man in the world, +if he is a strange one. How different he is from what I thought! I +don't believe there's another in this place who could have written +such a letter. What would a New York society man, whose compliments +are as extravagant as meaningless, think of it? Truly he doesn't know +the world, and isn't like it. I supposed him an awkward, eccentric +young countryman, that, from his very verdancy, would be difficult to +manage, and he writes to me like a knight of olden time, only such +language seems Quixotic in our day. The foolish fellow, to idealize +poor, despised, faulty Edith Allen into one of the grand heroines of +his interminable romances, and that after seeing me hoe my garden like +a Dutch woman. If I wasn't so sad and he so earnest, I could laugh +till my sides ached. There never was a more matter-of-fact creature +than I am, and yet here am I enveloped in a halo of impossible virtues +and graces. If I were what he thinks me, I shouldn't know myself. +Well, well, I must treat him somewhat like a boy, for such he really +is, ignorant of himself and all the world. When he comes to know me +better, the Edith of his imagination will vanish like his other +shadows, and he will have another revelation that I am an ordinary, +flesh-and-blood girl." + +With deepening color she continued: "So it was he who lifted me up +that night. Well, I am glad it was one who pitied me, and not some +coarse, unfeeling man. It seems strange how circumstances have brought +him who shuns and is shunned by all, into such a queer relationship to +me. But heaven forbid that I should give him lessons as to the +selfish, matter-of-fact world. He will outgrow his morbidness and +romantic chivalry with the certainty of years, and seeing more of me +will banish his absurd delusions in regard to me. I need his +friendship and help--indeed it seems as if they were sent to me. It +can do him no harm, and it may give me a chance to do him good. If any +man ever needed a sensible friend, he does." + +Therefore Edith wrote him-- + +"It is very kind of you to offer friendship and help to one situated +like myself, and I gratefully grant what you rather oddly call 'a +favor.' At the same time, if you ever find such friendliness a pain or +trouble to you in any way, I shall in no degree blame you for +withdrawing it." + +The "friendship" and "friendliness" were underscored, thus delicately +hinting that this must be the only relation. + +"There," she said, "all his chains will now be of his own forging, and +I shall soon demolish the paragon he is dreaming over." + +She laid both letters aside, and took down her Bible with a little +sigh of satisfaction. + +"His lonely, empty heart," she murmured; "ah, that is the trouble with +all. He thinks to fill his with a vain dream of me, as others do with +as vain a dream of something else. I trust I have learned of One here +who can fill and satisfy mine;" and soon she was again deep in the +wondrous story, so old, so new, so all-absorbing to those from whose +spiritual eyes the scales of doubt and indifference have fallen. As +she read she saw, not truths about Jesus, but _Him_, and at His feet +her heart bowed in stronger faith and deeper love every moment. + +She had not even thought whether she was a Christian or not. She had +not even once put her finger on her spiritual pulse, to gauge the +evidences of her faith. A system of theology would have been +unintelligible to her. She could not have defined one doctrine so as +to have satisfied a sound divine. She had not even read the greater +part of the Bible, but, in her bitter extremity, the Spirit of God, +employing the inspired guide, had brought her to Jesus, as the +troubled and sinful were brought to Him of old. He had given her rest. +He had helped her save her sister, and with childlike confidence she +was just looking, lovingly and trustingly, into His divine face, and +He was smiling away all her fear and pain. She seemed to feel sure +that her mother would get well, that Laura would grow stronger, that +they would all learn to know Him, and would be taken care of. + +As she read this evening she came to that passage of exquisite pathos, +where the purest, holiest manhood said to "a woman of the city, which +was a sinner." + +"Thy sins are forgiven. Go in peace." + +Instantly her thoughts reverted to Zell, and she was deeply moved. +Could she be forgiven? Could she be saved? Was the God of the Bible--stern, afar off, as she had once imagined--more tender toward the +erring than even their own human kindred? Could it be possible that, +while she had been condemning, and almost hating Zell, Jesus had been +loving her? + +The feeling overpowered her. Closing the book, she leaned her head +upon it, and, for the first time, sobbed and mourned for Zell with a +great, yearning pity. + +Every such pitiful tear, the world over, is a prayer to God. It +mingles with those that flowed from His eyes as He wept over the +doomed city that would not receive Him. It mingles with that crimson +tide which flowed from His hands and feet when He prayed-- + +"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +EDITH TELLS THE OLD, OLD STORY + + + +Mrs. Allen seemed better the next day, and Laura was able to watch +while Edith slept. After tea Mrs. Lacey appeared, with the same +subdued air of quiet self-respect and patient sorrow. She seemed to +have settled down into that mournful calm which hopes little and fears +little. She seemed to expect nothing better than to go forward, with, +such endurance as she might, into the deeper shadows of age, sickness, +and death. She vaguely hoped that God would have mercy upon her at +last, but how to love and trust Him she did not know. She hardly knew +that it was expected, or possible. She associated religion with going +to church, outward profession, and doing much good. The neighbors +spoke of her and the family as "very irreligious," and she had about +come to the conclusion that they were right. She never thought of +taking credit to herself for her devotion to her children and patience +with her husband. She loved the former, especially her son, with an +intensity that one could hardly reconcile with her grave and silent +ways. In regard to her husband, she tried to remember her first young +girlish dream--the manly ideal of character that her fond heart had +associated with the handsome young fellow who had singled her out +among the many envious maidens in her native village. + +"I will try to be true to what I thought he was," she said, with +woman's pathetic constancy, "and be patient with what he is." + +But the disappointment, as it slowly assumed dread certainty, broke +her heart. + +Edith began to have a fellow-feeling for her. "We both have not only +our own burdens to carry, but the heavier burden of another," she +thought. "I wonder if she has ever gone to Him for the 'rest.' I fear +not, or she would not look so sad and hopeless." + +Before they could go upstairs a hack from the hotel stopped at the +door, and Mrs. Groody bustled cheerily in. Laura at the same time came +down, saying that Mrs. Allen was asleep. + +"Hannibal," said Edith, "you may sit on the stairs, and if she wakes, +or makes any sound, let me know," and she took a seat near the door in +order to hear. + +"I've been worryin' about you every minute ever since I called, and +you was too sick to see me," said Mrs. Groody, "but I've been so busy +I couldn't get away. It takes an awful lot of work to get such a big +house to rights, and the women cleanin', and the servants are so +aggravating that I am just run off my legs lookin' after them. I don't +see why people can't do what they're told, when they're told." + +"I wish I were able to help you," said Edith. "Your promise of work +has kept me up wonderfully. But before I half got my strength back +mother became very ill, and, had it not been for Mrs. Lacey, I don't +know what I should have done. It did seem as if she were sent here +yesterday, for I could not have kept up another hour." + +"You poor child," said Mrs. Groody, in a tone and manner overflowing +with motherly kindness. "I just heard about it today from Arden, who +was bringin' something up to the hotel, so I said, 'I'll drop +everything to-night, and run down for a while.' So here I am, and now +what can I do for you?" concluded the warm-hearted woman, whose +invariable instinct was to put her sympathy into deeds. + +"I told you that night," said Edith. "I think I could do a little +sewing or mending even now if I had it here at home. But your kindness +and remembrance do me more good than any words of mine can tell you. I +thought no one would ever speak to us again," she continued in a low +tone, and with rising color, "and I have had kind, helpful friends +sent to me already." + +Wistful mother-love shone in Mrs. Lacey's large blue eyes, but Mrs. +Groody blew her nose like a trumpet, and said: + +"Not speak to you, poor child! Though I ain't on very good terms with +the Lord, I ain't a Pharisee, and after what I saw of you that night, +I am proud to speak to you and do anything I can for you. It does seem +too bad that poor young things like you two should be so burdened. I +should think you had enough before without your mother gettin' sick. I +don't understand the Lord, nohow. Seems to me He might scatter His +afflictions as well as His favors a little more evenly, I've thought a +good deal about what you said that night, 'We're dealt with in +masses,' and poor bodies like you and me, and Mrs. Lacey there, that +is, 'the human atoms,' as you called 'em, are lost sight of." + +Tears sprang into Edith's eyes, and she said, earnestly, "I am sorry I +ever said those words. They are not true. I should grieve very much if +my rash, desperate words did you harm after all your kindness to me. I +have learned better since I saw you, Mrs. Groody. We are not lost +sight of. It seems to me the trouble is we lose sight of Him." + +"Well, well, child, I'm glad to hear you talk in that way," said Mrs. +Groody, despondently. "I'm dreadfully discouraged about it all. I know +I fell from grace, though, one awfully hot summer, when everything +went wrong, and I got on a regular rampage, and that's the reason +perhaps. A she-bear that had lost her cubs wasn't nothin' to me. But I +straightened things out at the hotel, though I came mighty near bein' +sick, but I never could get straight myself after it. I knowed I ought +to be more patient-I knowed it all the time. But human natur is human +natur, and woman natur is worse yet sometimes. And when you've got on +one hand a score to two of drinkin,' quarrelsome, thievin', and +abominably lazy servants to manage, and on the other two or three +hundred fastidious people to please, and elegantly dressed ladies who +can't manage their three or four servants at home, dawdlin' up to you +every hour in the day, say in' about the same as, Mrs. Groody, +everything ain't done in a minute--everything ain't just right. I'd +like to know where 'tis in this jumbled-up world--not where they're +housekeepers, I warrant you. + +"Well, as I was telling you," continued Mrs. Groody, with a weary +sigh, "that summer was too much for me. I got to be a very dragon. I +hadn't time to read my Bible, or pray, or go to church, or scarcely +eat or sleep. I worked Sundays and week days alike, and I got to be a +sort of heathen, and I've been one ever since," and a gloom seemed to +gather on her naturally open, cheery face, as if she feared she might +never be anything else. + +Mrs. Lacey gave a deep, responsive sigh, showing that her heavy heart +was akin to all other burdened souls. But direct, practical Edith said +simply and gently: + +"In other words, you were laboring and heavy laden." + +"Couldn't have been more so, and lived," was Mrs. Groody's emphatic +answer. + +"And the memory of it seems to have been a heavy burden on your +conscience ever since, though I think you judge yourself harshly," +continued Edith. + +"Not a bit," said Mrs. Groody sturdily, "I knowed better all the +time." + +"Well, be that as it may, I feel that I know very little about these +things yet. I'm sure I want to be guided rightly. But what did our +Lord mean when He said, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest'?" + +Mrs. Groody gave Edith a sort of surprised and startled look. After a +moment she said, "Bless you, child, how plain you do put it! It's a +very plain text when you think of it, now, ain't it? I always tho't it +meant kind o' good, as all the Bible does." + +"No, but He said them," urged Edith, earnestly. "It is a distinct, +plain invitation, and it must have a distinct, plain meaning. I have +learned to know that when you or Mrs. Lacey say a thing, you mean what +you say, and so it is with all who are sincere and true. Was He not +sincere and true? If so, these plain words must have a plain meaning. +He surely couldn't have meant them only for the few people who heard +His voice at that time." + +"Of course not," said Mrs. Groody, musingly, while poor Mrs. Lacey +leaned forward with such an eager, hungry look in her poor, worn face, +that Edith's heart yearned over her. Laura came and sat on the floor +by her sister's chair, and leaning her elbow on Edith's knee, and her +face on her hand, looked up with the wistful, trustful, child-like +expression that had taken the place of her former stateliness and +subsequent apathy. Edith lost all thought of herself in her eagerness +to tell the others of the Friend and Helper she had come to know. + +"He must be God, or else He had no right to say to a great, troubled, +sinning world, 'Come unto me.' The idea of a million people going at +once, with their sorrows and burdens, to one mere man, or an angel, or +any finite creature! And just think how many millions there are! If +the Bible is for all, this invitation is for all. He couldn't have +changed since then, could He? He can't be different in heaven from +what He was on earth?" + +"No," said Mrs. Groody, quickly, "for the Bible says He is the same +yesterday, to-day, and forever.'" + +"I never read in that place," said Edith, simply. "That makes it +clearer and stronger than ever. Please, don't think I am setting +myself up as a religious teacher. I know very little yet myself. I am +only seeking the light. But one thing is settled in my mind, and I +like to have one thing settled before I go on to anything else. This +one thing seems the foundation of everything else, and it appears as +if I could go on from it and learn all the rest. I am satisfied that +this Jesus is God, and that He said, 'Come unto me,' to poor, weak, +overburdened Edith Allen. I went to Him, just as people in trouble +used to, when He first spoke these words. And oh, how He has helped +me!" continued Edith, with tears in her eyes, but with the glad light +of a great hope again shining through them. "The world can never know +all that He has done for us, and I can't even think of Him without my +heart quivering with gratitude." + +Laura had now buried her face in her sister's lap, and was trembling +like a leaf. Edith's words had a meaning to her that they could not +have for the others. + +"And now," concluded Edith, "I was led to Him by these words, 'Come +unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you +rest.' I was in greater darkness than I had ever been in before. My +heart ached as if it would burst. Difficulty and danger seemed on +every side, and I saw no way out. I knew the world had only scorn for +us, and I was so bowed down with shame and discouragement that I +almost lost all hope. I had been to the village, and the people looked +and pointed at me, till I was ready to drop in the street. But I went +to Mr. McTrump's, and he and his wife were so kind to me, and +heartened me up a little; and they spoke about the 'Gude Book,' as +they call it, in such a way as made me think of it in my deep distress +and fear, as I sat alone watching with mother. So I found my neglected +Bible, and, in some way, I seemed guided to these words, 'Come unto +me'; and then, for two or three hours, I continued to read eagerly +about Him, till at last I felt that I could venture to go to Him. So, +I just bowed my head, on His own invitation; indeed, it seemed like a +tender call to a child that had been lost in the dark, and was afraid, +and I said, 'I am heavy laden, help me.' And how wonderfully He did +help me! He has been so good, so near, ever since. My weary, hopeless +heartache is gone. I don't know what is before us. I can't see the way +out of our troubles. I don't know what has become of our absent one," +she said, in a low tone and with bowed head, "but I can leave all to +Him. He is God: He loves, and He can and will take care of us. So you +see I know very little about religion yet; just enough to trust and +keep close to Him; and I feel sure that in time He will teach me, +through the Bible, or in some way, all I ought to know." + +"Bless the child, she's right, she's right," sobbed Mrs. Groody. "It +was just so at first. He came right among people, and called all sorts +to Him, and they came to Him just as they was, and stayed with Him, +and He cured, and helped, and taught 'em, till, from being the worst, +they became the best. That is the way that distressed, swearin', old +fisherman Peter became one of the greatest and best men that ever +lived; though it took a mighty lot of grace and patience to bring it +about. Now I think of it, I think he fell from grace worse than I did +that awfully hot summer. What an old fool I am! I've been readin' the +Bible all my life, and never understood it before." + +"I think that if you had gone to Him that time when you were so +troubled and overburdened He would have helped you," said Edith, +gently. + +"Yes, but there it is, you see," said Mrs. Groody, wiping her eyes and +shaking her head despondently; "I didn't go." + +"But you are heavy laden now. I can see it. You can go now," said +Edith, earnestly. + +"I'm afraid I've put it off too long," said Mrs. Groody, settling back +into something of her old gloom. "I'm afraid I've sinned away my +time." + +With a strange blending of pathos and reproach in her tone, Edith +answered: + +"Oh, how can YOU, with your big, kind heart, that yearned over a poor +unknown girl that dreadful night when you brought me home--how can you +think so poorly of your Saviour? Is your heart warmer--are your +sympathies larger than His? Why, He died for us, and, when dying, +prayed for those who crucified Him. Could you turn away a poor, +sorrowing, burdened creature that came pleading to you for help? You +know you couldn't. Learn from your own heart something of His. Listen, +I haven't told you all. It seems as if I never could tell all about +Him. But see how He feels about poor lost Zell, when I, her own +sister, was almost hating her," and, reaching her hand to the table, +she took her Bible and read Christ's words to "a woman of the city, +which was a sinner." + +At this Mrs. Groody broke down completely, and with clasped hands and +streaming eyes, cried: + +"I will go to Him; I will fear and doubt no more." + +A trembling hand was now laid on Edith's shoulder, and, looking up, +she saw Mrs. Lacey standing by her side with a face so white, so +eager, so full of unutterable longing, that it might have made a +Christian artist's ideal of a soul famishing for the "Bread of Life." +In a low, timid, yet thrilling tone, she asked: + +"Miss Allen, do you think He would receive such as me?" + +"Yes, thus," cried Edith, as with a divine impulse and a great +yearning pity she sprang up and threw her arms around Mrs. Lacey. + +Hope dawned in the poor worn face like the morning. Belief in God's +love and sympathy seemed to flow into her sad heart from the other +human heart that was pressed against it. The spiritual electric circle +was completed--Edith, with her hand of faith in God's, took the +trembling, groping hand of another and placed it there also. + +Two great tears gathered in Mrs. Lacey's eyes, and she bowed her head +for a moment on Edith's shoulder, and murmured, "I'll try--I think I +may venture to Him." + +Hannibal now appeared at the door, saying, rather huskily and +brokenly, considering his message: + +"Miss Edie, you'se mudder's awake, an' 'd like some water." + +"That's what we all have been wanting, 'water'--'the water of life,'" +said Mrs. Groody, wiping her eyes, "and never was my parched old heart +so refreshed before. I don't care how hot this summer is, or how +aggravatin' things are, I feel as if I'd be helped through it. And, my +dear, good-night. I come here to try to do you good, and you've done +me more good than I ever thought could happen again. I'm goin' to kiss +you--I can't help it. Good-by, and may the good Lord bless your sweet +face;" and Mrs. Groody, like one of old, climbed up into her chariot, +and "went on her way rejoicing." + +In their close good-night embrace, Laura whispered, "I begin to +understand it a little now, Edie, but I think I see everything only +through your eyes, not my own." + +"As old Malcom said to me the other day, so now I say to you, 'Ye'll +learn it a' soon.'" + +Edith soon retired to rest also, and Mrs. Lacey sat at Mrs. Allen's +side, returning the sick woman's slights and scorn, somewhat as the +patient God returns ours, by watching over her. + +Her eyes, no longer cast down with the pathetic discouragement of the +past, seemed looking far away upon some distant scene. She was +following in her thoughts the steps of the Magi from the East to +where, as yet far distant, the "Star of Bethlehem" glimmered with +promise and hope. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +HANNIBAL LEARNS HOW HIS HEART CAN BE WHITE + + + +When Edith rose the next morning she found Laura only at her mother's +bedside. Mrs. Lacey had gone home quite early, saying that she would +soon come again. Mrs. Allen's delirium had passed away, leaving her +exceedingly weak, but the doctor said, at his morning call: + +"With quiet and good nursing she will slowly regain her usual health." + +After he was gone, Laura said: "Taking care of mother will now be my +work, Edie. I feel a good deal stronger. I'll doze in a chair during +the day, and I am a light sleeper at night, so I don't think we shall +need any more watchers. Poor Mrs. Lacey works hard at home, I am sure, +and I don't want to trespass on her kindness any longer. So if Mrs. +Groody sends you work you may give all your time to it." + +And early after breakfast quite a bundle did come from the hotel, with +a scrawl from the housekeeper: "You may mend this linen, my dear, and +I'll send for it to-morrow night." + +Edith's eyes sparkled at the sight of the work as they never had over +the costliest gifts of jewelry. Sitting down in the airy parlor, no +longer kept in state for possible callers, she put on her thimble, +and, with a courage and heroism greater than those of many a knight +drawing for the first time his ancestral sword, she took her needle +and joined the vast army of sewing-women. Lowly was the position and +work first assigned to her--only mending coarse linen. And yet it was +with a thrill of gratitude and joy, and a stronger hope than she had +yet experienced, that she sat down to the first real work for which +she would be paid, and in her exultation she brandished her little +needle at the spectres want and fear, as a soldier might his weapon. + +Hannibal stood in the kitchen regarding her with moist eyes and +features that twitched nervously. + +"Oh, Miss Edie, I neber tho't you'd come to dat." + +"It's one of the best things I've come to yet," said Edith, cheerily. +"We shall be taken care of, Hannibal. Cheer up your faithful old +heart. Brighter days are coming." + +But, for some reason, Hannibal didn't cheer up, and he stood looking +very wistfully at Edith. At last he commenced: + +"It does my ole black heart good to hear you talk so, Miss Edie--" + +"Why do you persist in calling your heart black? It's no such thing," +interrupted Edith. + +"Yes, 'tis, Miss Edie," said Hannibal, despondently, "I'se know 'tis. +I'se black outside, and I allers kinder feel dat I'se more black +inside. Neber felt jes right here yet, Miss Edie," said the old man, +laying his hand on his breast. "I come de nighest to't de toder day +when you said you lubbed me. Dat seemed to go down deep, but not quite +to whar de trouble stays all de time. + +"But, Miss Edie," continued he in a whisper, "I'se hope you'll forgive +me, but I couldn't help listenin' to you last night. I neber heerd +such talk afore. It seemed to broke my ole black heart all up, and +made it feel like de big ribers down souf in de spring, when dey jes +oberflow eberyting. I says to myself, dat's de Friend Miss Edie say +she's gwine to tell me 'bout. And now, Miss Edie, would you mind +tellin' me little 'bout Him? Cause if He's your Friend, I'd t'ink a +heap of Him, too. Not dat I specs He's gwine to bodder wid dis ole +niggah, but den I'd jes like to hear 'bout Him a little." + +Edith laid down her work, and turned her glorious dark eyes, brimming +over with sympathy, on the poor old fellow, as he stood in the doorway +fairly trembling with the excess of his feeling. + +"Come and sit down here by me," she said. + +"Oh, Miss Edie, I'se isn't--" + +"No words--come." + +Hannibal crouched down on a divan near. + +"What makes you think He wouldn't bother with you?" + +"Well, I'se don't know 'zactly, Miss Edie. I'se only Hannibal." + +"Hannibal," said Edith, earnestly, "you are the best man I know in all +the world." + +"Oh, Lor bless you, Miss Edie, how you talk! you'se jes done gone +crazy." + +"No I haven't. I never spoke in more sober earnest. You are faithful +and true, unselfish and patient, and abound in the best material of +which men are made. I admit," she added, with a twinkle in her eye, +"that one very common element of manhood, as I have observed it, is +dreadfully lacking, that is conceit. I wish I were as good as you are, +Hannibal." + +"Oh, Miss Edie, don't talk dat way, you jes done discourages me. If +you'd only say, Hannibal, you'se sick, but I'se got a mighty powerful +medicine for you; if you'd only say, I know you isn't good; I know +your ole heart is black, but I know a way to make it white, I'd stoop +down and kiss de ground you walks on. Dere's sumpen wrong here, Miss +Edie," said he, laying his hand on his breast again, and shaking his +head, with a tear in the corner of each eye--"I tells you dere's +sumpen wrong. I don't know jes what 'tis. My heart's like a baby a-cryin' for it doesn't know what. Den it gits jes like a stun, as hard +and as heavy. I don't understan' my ole heart; I guess it's kinder +sick and wants a doctor, 'cause it don't work right. But dere's one +ting I does understan'. It 'pears dat it would be a good heaven 'nuff +if I'se could allers be waitin' on you alls. But Massa Allen's gone; +Miss Zell, poor chile, is gone; and I'se growin' ole, Miss Edie, I'se +growin' ole. De wool is white, de jints are stiff, and de feet tired. +Dey can't tote dis ole body roun' much longer. Where am I gwine, Miss +Edie? What's gwine to become of ole Hannibal? I'se was allers afeard +of de dark. If I could only find you in de toder world and wait on +you, dat's all I ask, but I'se afeard I'll get lost, it seems such a +big, empty place." + +"Poor old Hannibal! Then you are 'heavy laden' too," said Edith, +gently. + +"Indeed I is, Miss Edie; 'pears as if I couldn't stan' it anoder +minute. And when I heerd you talkin' about dat Friend last night, and +tellin' how good He was to people, and He seemed to do you such a heap +of good, I thought dat I would jes like to hear little 'bout Him." +"Wait till I get my Bible," said Edith. + +"Bless you, Miss Edie, you'se needn't stop your work. You can jes tell +me any ting dat come into you'se head." + +"Then I wouldn't be like Him, Hannibal. He used to stop and give the +kindest and most patient attention to every one that came to Him, and, +as far as I can make out, the poorer they were, the more sinful and +despised they seemed, the more attention He gave to them." + +"Dat's mighty quar," said Hannibal, musingly; "not a bit like de big +folks dat I'se seen." + +"I don't understand it all myself yet, Hannibal. But the Bible tells +me that He was God come down to earth to save the world. He says to +the lost and sinful--to all who are poor and needy--in brief, to the +heavy laden, 'Come unto me.' So I went to Him, Hannibal, and you can +go just as well." + +The old man's eyes glistened, but he said, doubtfully, "Yes, but den +you'se Miss Edie, and I'se only black Hannibal. I wish we'd all lived +when He was here. I might have shine His boots, and done little tings +for Him, so He'd say, 'Poor ole Hannibal, you does as well as you +knows how. I'll 'member you, and you shan't go away in de dark.'" + +Edith smiled and cried at the same time over the quaint pathos of the +simple creature's words, but she said, earnestly, "You need not go +away in the dark, for He said, 'I am the light of the world,' and if +you go to Him you will always be in the light." + +"I'd go in a minute," said Hannibal, eagerly, "if I only know'd how, +and wasn't afeard." Then, as if a sudden thought struck him, he asked, +"Miss Edie, did He eber hab any ting to do wid a black man?" + +Edith was so unfamiliar with the Bible that she could not recall any +distinct case, but she said, with the earnestness of such full belief +on her part, that it satisfied his child-like mind, "I am sure He did, +for all kinds of people--people that no one else would touch or look +at--came to Him, or He went to them, and spoke so kindly to them and +forgave all their sins." + +"Bress Him, Miss Edie, dat kinder sounds like what I wants." + +Edith thought a moment, and, with her quick, logical mind, sought to +construct a simple chain of truth that would bring to the trusting +nature she was trying to guide the perfect assurance that Jesus' love +and mercy embraced him as truly as herself. + +They made a beautiful picture that moment; she with her hands, that +had dropped all earthly tasks for the sake of this divine work, +clasped in her lap, her lustrous eyes dewy with sympathy and feeling, +looking far away into the deep blue of the June sky, as if seeking +some heavenly inspiration; and quaint old Hannibal, leaning forward in +his eagerness, and gazing upon her, as if his life depended upon her +next utterances. + +It was a picture of the Divine Artist's own creation. He had inspired +the faith in one and the questioning unrest in the other. He, with +Edith's lips, as ever by human lips, was teaching the way of life. +Glorious privilege, that our weak voices should be as the voice of +God, telling the lost and wandering where lies the way to life and +home! The angels leaned over the golden walls to watch that scene, +while many a proud pageant passed unheeded. + +"Hannibal," said Edith, after her momentary abstraction, "God made +everything, didn't He?" + +"Sartin." + +"Then He made you, and you are one of His creatures, are you not?" + +"Sartin I is, Miss Edie." + +"Then see here what is in the Bible. Almost the last thing He said to +His followers before He went up into heaven, was, 'Go ye into all the +world and preach the gospel to every creature.' Gospel means 'good +news,' and the good news was, that God had come down from heaven and +become a man, so we wouldn't be afraid of Him, and that He would take +away their sins and save all who would let Him. Now, remember, He +didn't send His preachers to the white people, nor to the black +people, but to all the world, to every creature alike, and so He meant +you and me, Hannibal, and you as much as me. I am just as sure He will +receive you as that He received me." + +"Dat's 'nuff, Miss Edie. Ole Hannibal can go too. And I'se a-gwine, +Miss Edie, I'se a-gwine right to Him. Dere's only one ting dat +troubles me yet. What is I gwine to do wid my ole black heart? I know +dere's sumpen wrong wid it. It's boddered me all my life." + +"Oh, Hannibal," said Edith, eagerly, "I was reading something last +night that I think will just suit you, I thought I would read a little +in the Old Testament, and I turned to a place that I didn't understand +very well, but I came to these words, and they made me think of you, +for you are always talking about your 'old black heart.'" And she +read: + +"I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; +and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them +an heart of flesh." + +To Hannibal the words seemed a revelation from heaven. Standing before +her, with streaming eyes, he said: + +"Oh, Miss Edie, you'se been an angel of light to me. Dat was jes de +berry message I wanted. I knowed my ole heart was nothin' but a black +stun. De Lord couldn't do nothin' wid it but trow it away. But tanks +be to His name, He says He'll give me a new one--a heart of flesh. Now +I sees dat my heart can be white like yours, Miss Edie. Bress de Lord, +I'se a-gwine, I'se a-comin'," and Hannibal vanished into the kitchen, +feeling that he must be alone in the glad tumult of his emotions. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +EDITH'S AND ARDEN'S FRIENDSHIP + + + +As Edith laid aside her work for a frugal dinner at one o'clock, she +heard the sound of a hoe in her garden. The thought of Arden at once +recurred to her, but looking out she saw old Malcom. Throwing a +handkerchief over her head, she ran out to him, exclaiming: + +"How good you are, Mr. McTrump, to come and help me when I know you +are so very busy at home!" + +"Weel, nothin' to boast on," replied Malcom; "I tho't that if ye had +na one a-lookin' after the garden save Hannibal's 'spook,' ye'd have +but a ghaistly crop. But I'm a-thinkin' there's mair than a ghaist +been here." + +"It was Arden Lacey," said Edith, frankly, but with deepening color. +Malcom, in telling his wife about it, said, "She looked like the rose-bush, a' in bloom, that she was a-stonnin' beside." + +Edith, seeing the mischievous twinkle in her little friend's eye, +added hastily, "Both Mrs. Lacey and her son have been very kind to us +in our sickness and trouble, as well as yourself. But, Mr. McTrump," +she continued, anxious to change the subject, also eager to speak on +the topic uppermost in her thoughts, "I think I am beginning to 'learn +it a',' as you said, about that good Friend who suffered for us that +we might not suffer. What you and your wife said to me the other day +led me to read the 'Gude Book' after I got home. I don't feel as I did +then. I think I can trust Him now." + +Malcom dropped his hoe and came over into the path beside her. + +"God be praised!" he said. "I gie je the right hond o' fellowship an' +welcome ye into the kirk o' the Lord. Ye noo belong to the household +o' faith, an' God's true Israel, an' may His gude Spirit guide ye into +all truth." + +The little man spoke very earnestly, and with a certain dignity and +authority that his small stature and rude working-dress could not +diminish. A sudden feeling of solemnity and awe came over Edith, and +she felt as if she were crossing the mystic threshold and entering the +one true church consisting of all believers in Christ. + +For a moment she reverently bowed her head, and a sweeter sense of +security came over her, as if she were no longer an outsider, but had +been received into the household. + +Malcom, "a priest unto God" through his faith, officiated at the +simple ceremony. The birds sang the choral service. The wind-shaken +roses, blooming around her, with their sweet ordos, were the censers +and incense, and the sunlighted garden, the earliest sacred place of +Bible history, where the first fair woman worshipped, was the hallowed +ground of the initiatory rite. + +"Why, Mr. McTrump, I feel almost as if I had joined the church," said +Edith, after a moment. + +"An' sae ye ha' afore God, an' I hope ere long ye'll openly profess +yer faith before men." + +"Do you think I ought?" said Edith, thoughtfully. + +"Of coorse I do, but the Gude Book'll teach a' aboot it. Ye canna gang +far astray wi' that to guide ye." + +"I would like to join the church that you belong to, Mr. McTrump, as +soon as I feel that I am ready, for it was you and your good wife that +turned my thoughts in the right direction. I was almost desperate with +trouble and shame when I came to you that afternoon, and it was your +speaking of the Bible and Jesus, and especially your kindness, that +made me feel that there might be some hope and help in God." + +The old man's eyes became so moist that he turned away for a moment, +but recovering himself after a little, he said: + +"See, noo, our homely deeds and words can be like the seeds we drop +into the mould. Look aroon once and see how green and grand the garden +is, and a' from the wee brown seeds we planted the spring. Sae would +the garden o' the Lord bloom and floorish if a' were droppin' a 'word +in season' and a bit o' kindness here and there. But if I stay here +an' preach to ye that need na preachin', these sins o' the garden, the +weeds, will grow apace. Go you an' look in yer strawberry-bed." + +With an exclamation of delight, Edith pounced upon a fair-sized red +berry, the first she had picked from her own vines. Then glancing +around, she saw one and another showing its red cheek through the +green leaves, till with a little cry of exultation she said: + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump, I'll get enough for mother and Laura." + +"Aye, and enoof to moisten yer own red lips wi' too, I'm a-thinkin'. +There'll be na crop the year wourth speakin' of; but next June 'twill +puzzle ye to gither them. But ye a' can ha' a dainty saucer yoursels +the season, when ye're a mind to stoop for them." + +Edith soon had the pleasure of seeing her mother and Laura enjoying +some, and, as Malcom said, there were plenty for her, and they tasted +like the ambrosia of the gods. Varied experiences had so thoroughly +engrossed her thoughts and time the past few days, that she had +scarcely looked toward her garden. But with the delicious flavor of +the strawberries lingering in her mouth, and with the consciousness +that she enjoyed picking them much more than sewing, the thought of +winning her bread by the culture of the ground grew in her favor. + +"Oh, how much rather would I be out there with Malcom!" she sighed. + +Glancing up from her work during the afternoon, she saw Arden Lacey on +his way to the village. There was a strange mingling of hope and fear +in his mind. His mother's manner had been such as to lead him to say +when alone with her after breakfast: + +"I think your watching has done you good, mother, in stead of wearying +you too much, as I feared." + +She had suddenly turned and placed both her hands on his shoulders, +saying: + +"Arden, I hardly dare speak of it yet. It seems too good to be true, +but a hope is coming into my heart like the dawn after night. She's +worthy of your love, however it may result, and if I find true what +she told me last night I shall have reason to bless her name forever; +but I see only a glimmer of light yet, and I rejoice with fear and +trembling." And she told him what had occurred. + +He was deeply moved, but not for the same cause as his mother. His +desire and devotion went no further than Edith. "Can she have read my +letter?" he thought, and he was consumed with anxiety for some +expression of her feeling toward him. Therefore he was glad that +business called him to the village that afternoon, but his steps were +slow as he approached the little cottage, and his eyes were upon it as +a pilgrim gazes at a shrine he long has sought. He envied Malcom +working in the garden, and felt that if he could work there every day, +it would be Adam's life before he fell. Then he caught a glimpse of +Edith sewing at the window, and he dropped his eyes instantly. He +would not be so afraid of a battery of a hundred guns as of that poor +sewing-girl (for such Edith now was), stitching away on Mrs. Groody's +coarse hotel linen. But Edith had noted his timid, wistful looks, and +calling Hannibal, said: + +"Please give that note to Mr. Lacey. He is just passing toward the +village." + +Hannibal, with the impressive dignity he had learned in olden times, +handed the missive to Arden, saying, "Miss Edie telled me to guv you +dis 'scription." + +If Hannibal had been Hebe he could not have been a more welcome +messenger. + +Arden could not help his hand trembling as he took the letter, but he +managed to say, "I hope Miss Allen is well." + +"Her health am berry much disproved," and Hannibal retired with a +stately bow. + +Arden quickened his steps, holding the missive in his hand. As soon as +he was out of sight, he opened and devoured Edith's words. The light +of a great joy dawned in his face, and made it look noble and +beautiful, as indeed almost every human face appears when the light of +a pure love falls upon it. Where most men would have murmured at the +meagre return for their affection, he felt himself immeasurably +rewarded and enriched, and it seemed as if he were walking on air the +rest of the day. With a face set like a flint, he resolved to be true +to the condition implied in the underscored word "friendship," and +never to whisper of love to her again. But a richer experience was +still in store for him. For, on his return, in the cool of the +evening, Edith was in the garden picking currants. She saw him coming, +and thought, "If he is ever to be a friend worth the name, I must +break the ice of his absurd diffidence and formality. And the sooner +he comes to know me as I am, the sooner he will find out that I am +like other people, and he will have a new 'revelation' that will cure +him of his infatuation. I would like him for a _friend_ very much, not +only because I need his help, but because one likes a little society +now and then, and he seems so well educated, if he is 'quar,' as +Hannibal says." So she startled poor Arden almost as much as if one +of his Shakespearean heroines had called him in audible voice, by +saying, as he came opposite her: + +"Mr. Lacey, won't you come in a moment and tell me if it is time to +pick my currants, and whether you think I could sell them in the +village, or at the hotel?" + +This address, so matter-of-fact in tone and character, seemed to him +like the June twilight, containing, in some subtle manner, the essence +of all that was beautiful and full of promise in his heart-history. He +bowed and went toward the little gate to comply with her request, as +Adam might if he had been created outside of Eden and Eve inside, and +she had looked over a flowering hedge in the purple twilight and told +him to come in. He was not going merely to look at currants and +consider their marketable condition; he was entering openly upon the +knightly service to which he had devoted himself. He was approaching +his idol, which was not a heathen stock or stone, but a sweet little +woman. In regard to the currants, he ventured dubiously-- + +"They might do for pies." + +In regard to herself, his eyes said, in spite of his purpose to be +merely friendly, that she was too good for the gods of Mount Olympus. +He both amused and interested Edith, whose long familiarity with +society and lack of any such feeling as swayed him made her quite at +ease. With a twinkle in her eyes, she said: + +"I have thought that perhaps Mrs. Groody could help me find sale for +them at the hotel." + +"I am going there to-morrow, and I will ask her for you, if you wish," +said Arden, timidly. + +"Thank you," replied Edith. "I shall be very much obliged to you if +you will. You see, I wish to sell everything out of the garden that I +can find a market for." + +She was rather astonished at the effect of this mercenary speech, for +there was a wonderful blending of sympathy and admiration in his face +as he said: + +"I am frequently going to the hotel and village, and if you will let +me know what you have to dispose of, I can find out whether it is in +demand, and carry it to market for you." He could not help adding, +with a voice trembling with feeling, "Miss Allen, I am so glad you +permit me to be of some help to you." + +"Oh, dear!" thought Edith, "how can I make him understand what I +really am?" She turned to him with an expression that was both +perplexed and quizzical, and said: + +"Mr. Lacey, I very frankly and gratefully accept your delicately +offered friendship (emphasizing the last word), not only because of my +need, but of yours also. If any one needs a sensible friend, I think +you do. You truly must have lived a 'hermit's life in the world' to +have such strange ideas of people. Let me tell you as a perfect +certainty, that no such person exists as the Edith Allen that you have +imagined. She is no more a reality than your other shadows, and the +more you know of me, the sooner you will find it out. I am not in the +least like a heroine in a romance. I live on the most substantial food +rather than moonlight, and usually have an excellent appetite. I am +the most practical matter-of-fact creature in existence, and you will +find no one in this place more sharp on the question of dollars and +cents. Indeed, I am continually in a most mercenary frame of mind, and +this very moment here, in the romantic June twilight, if you ransacked +history, poetry, and all the fine arts, you could not tell me anything +half so beautiful, half so welcome, as how to make money in a fair, +honorable way." + +"There," thought she, "that will be another 'revelation' to him. If he +don't jump over the garden fence in his haste to escape such a +monster, I shall be glad." + +But Arden's face only grew more grave and gentle as he looked down +upon her, and he asked: + +"Is it because you love the money itself, Miss Allen?" + +"Well, no," said Edith, somewhat taken aback. "I can never earn enough +to make it worth while to do that. Misers love to count their money," +she added, with a little pathetic accent in her voice, "and I fear +mine will go before I can count it." + +"You wish me to think less of you, then, because you are bravely, and +without thought of sparing yourself, trying to earn money to provide +home-shelter and comfort for your feeble mother and sister. You wish +me to think you commonplace because you have the heroism to do any +kind of work, rather than be helpless and dependent. Pardon me, but +for such a 'practical, matter-of-fact' lady, I do not think your logic +is good." + +Edith's vexation and perplexity only increased, and she said, +earnestly, "But I wish you to understand that I am only Edith Allen, +and as poor as poverty, nothing but a sewing girl, and only hoping to +arrive at the dignity of a gardener. The majority of the world thinks +I am not even fit to speak to," she added, in a low tone. + +Arden bowed his head, as if in reverence before her, and then said, +firmly: + +"And I wish you to understand that I am only Arden Lacey, with a sot +for a father, and the scorn, contempt, and hatred of all the world as +my heritage. I am a slipshod farmer. Our place is heavily mortgaged, +and will eventually be sold away from us. It grows more weeds now than +anything else; and it seems that nettles have been the principal crop +that I have reaped all my life. Thus, you see, I am poorer than +poverty, and am rich only in my mother, and, eventually, I hope," he +added timidly, "in the possession of your friendship, Miss Allen; I +shall try so sincerely and hard to deserve it." + +With a frown, a laugh, and a shy look of sympathy at him, Edith said, +"I don't see but you have got to find out your mistake for yourself. +Time and facts cure many follies." But she found little encouragement +in his incredulous smile. + +The next moment she turned upon him so sharply that he was startled. + +"I am a business woman," she said, "and conduct my affairs on business +principles. You said, I think, you would help me find a market for the +produce of my place?" + +"Certainly," he replied. + +"As certainly you must take fifteen per cent commission on all sales." + +"Oh, Miss Allen," commenced Arden, "I couldn't--" + +"There," said she, decisively, "you haven't the first idea of +business. Not a thing can you touch unless you comply with my +conditions. There is no sentiment, I assure you, connected with +currants and cabbages." + +"You may be certain, Miss Allen, that I would comply with any +condition," said Arden, with the air of one who is cornered, "but let +me suggest, since we are arranging this matter so strictly on business +grounds, that ten per cent is all I should take. That is the regular +commission, and is all I pay in sending produce to New York." + +"Oh, I didn't know that," said the experienced and uncompromising +woman of business, innocently. "Do you think that would pay you for +your trouble?" + +"I think it would," he replied, so demurely and yet with such a +twinkle in his blue eyes, that now looked very different with the +light of hope and happiness in them, that Edith turned away with a +laugh. + +But she said, with assumed sharpness, "See that you keep your accounts +straight. I shall be a very dragon over your account-book." + +Thus the ice was broken, and Edith and Arden became _friends_. + +The future has now been quite clearly indicated to the reader, and, +lest my story should grow wearisome as a "twice-told tale," we pass +over several subsequent months with but a few words. + +It was not a good fruit year, and Edith's place had been sadly +neglected previous to her possession. Therefore, though Arden +surprised himself in the sharp business traits he developed as Edith's +salesman, the results were not very large. But still they greatly +assisted her, and amounted to more than the earnings of her unskilled +hands from other sources. She insisted on doing everything on business +principles, and made Arden take his ten per cent, which was of real +help to him in this way: he gave all the money to his mother, saying, +"_I_ couldn't spend it to save my life." Mrs. Lacey had many uses +for every penny she could obtain. + +Then Edith paid old Malcom by making up bouquets for sale at the +hotel, and arranging baskets of flowers for parties there and +elsewhere, and other lighter labors. Mrs. Groody continued to send her +work; and thus during the summer and early fall she managed to make +her garden and her labor provide for all family expenses, saving what +was left of the four hundred, after paying all debts, for winter need. +Moreover, she stored away in cellar and attic enough of the products +of the garden to be of great help also. + +Mrs. Allen did recover her usual health, and also her usual modes of +thought and feeling. The mental and moral habits of a lifetime are not +readily changed. Often and earnestly did Edith talk with her mother, +but with few evidences of the result she longed to see. + +Mrs. Allen's condition, in view of the truth, was the most hopeless +one of all. She saw only her preconceived ideas, and not the truth +itself. One day she said, with some irritation, to Edith, who was +pleading with her: + +"Do you think I am a heathen? Of course, I believe the Bible. Of +course, I believe in Jesus Christ. I have been a member of the church +ever since I was sixteen." + +Edith sighed, and thought, "Only He who can satisfy her need can +reveal it to her." + +Poor Mrs. Allen! With the strange infatuation of a worldly mind, she +was turning to the world, and it alone, for hope and solace. Untaught +by the wretched experience of the past, she was led to enter upon a +new and similar scheme for the aggrandizement of her family, as will +be explained in another chapter. + +Laura regained her strength somewhat, and was able to relieve Edith of +the care of her mother and the lighter duties of the house. Her faith +developed like that shy, delicate blossom called the "wind-flower," +easily shaken, and yet with a certain hardiness and power to live and +thrive in sterile places. + +Edith and Mrs. Lacey were eventually received into the church that +Malcom attended, and, after the simple service, they took dinner with +the old Scotchman and his wife. Malcom seemed hardly "in the body" all +day. + +"My heart's a-bloom," he said, "wi' a' the sweet posies that God ever +made blush when he looked at them the first time, an' ye seem the +sweetest o' them a', Miss Edith. Ah, but the Crude Husbandman gathered +a fair blossom the day." + +"Now, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, reproachfully, but with a face like +Malcom's posies, "you shouldn't give compliments on Sunday." For Arden +and Rose were present also, and Edith thought, "Such foolish words +will only increase his infatuation." + +"Weel," said Malcom, scratching his head, in his perplexed effort at +apology, "I wud na mak ye vain, nor hurt yer conscience, but it kind +o' slippit out afore I could stop it." + +In the laugh that followed Malcom's explanation Edith felt that +matters had not been helped much, and she adroitly turned the +conversation. + +Public opinion, from being at first very bitter and scornful against +the Allens, gradually began to soften. One after another, as they +recognized Edith's patient, determined effort to do right, began to +give her the credit and the respect to which she was entitled. Little +acts and tokens of kindly feeling became more frequent, and were like +glints of sunlight on her shadowed path. But the great majority felt +that they could have no associations with such as the Allens, and +completely ignored them. + +In their relations with the church, Edith and Mrs. Lacey found +increasing satisfaction. Many of its humble, and some of its more +influential, members treated them with much kindness and sympathy, and +they realized more and more that there are good, kind people in the +world, if you look in the right way and right places for them. The +Rev. Mr. Knox was a faithful preacher and pastor, and if his sermons +were a little dry and doctrinal at times, they were as sound and sweet +as a nut. Moreover, both Edith and Mrs. Lacey were sadly deficient in +the doctrines, neither having ever had any religious instruction, and +they listened with the grave, earnest interest of those desiring to be +taught. + +Mrs. Groody reconnected herself with her old church "I want to go +where I can shout 'Glory!'" she said. + +Rose but faintly sympathized with her mother's feelings. Her restless, +ambitious spirit turned longingly toward the world. Its attractions +she could understand, but not those of faith. Through her father's +evil habits, and Arden's poor farming, the pressure of poverty rested +heavier and heavier on the family, and she had about resolved to go to +New York and find employment in some store. + +Arden rarely went to church, but read at home. He was somewhat +sceptical in regard to the Bible, not that he had ever carefully +examined either it or its evidences, but he had read much of the +prevalent semi-infidelity, and was a little conceited over his +independent thinking. Then, in a harsh, sweeping cynicism, he utterly +detested church people, calling them the "holy sect of the Pharisees." + +"Bat they are not all such," his mother would say. + +"Oh, no," he would reply; "there are some sincere ones, of course; but +I think they would be better out than in such a company of +hypocrites." + +But as he saw Edith's sincerity, and learned of her purpose to unite +with the church, he kept these views more and more in the background; +but he had too much respect for her and his mother's faith to go with +them to what they regarded as a sacred place, from merely the personal +motive of being near Edith. + +One day Mrs. Lacey and Edith walked down to the evening prayer-meeting. Arden, who had business in the village, was to call for them +at its close; as they were walking home, Edith suddenly asked him: + +"Why don't you go to church?" + +"I don't like the people I meet there." + +"What have you against them?" + +"Well, there is Mr. Hard. He is one of the 'lights and pillars'; and +he would have sold the house over your head if you had not paid him. +He can 'devour a widow's house' as well as they of olden time." + +"That is not the question," said the practical Edith, earnestly. "What +have you to do with Mr. Hard, or he with you? Does he propose--is he +able to save you? The true question is, What have you got against +Jesus Christ?" + +"Well, really, Miss Edith, I can have nothing against Him. Both +history and legend unite in presenting Him as one of the purest and +noblest of men. But pardon me if I say in all honesty that I cannot +quite accept your belief in regard to Him and the Bible in general. A +man can hardly be a man without exercising the right of independent +thought. I cannot take a book called the Bible for granted." + +"But," asked, Edith keenly, "are you not taking other books for +granted? Answer me truly, Mr. Lacey, have you carefully and patiently +investigated this subject, not only on the side of your sceptical +writers, but on God's side also? He has plenty of facts, as well as +the infidels, and my rich, lasting, rational, spiritual experience is +as much a fact as that stone there, and a good deal higher and better +one, I think." + +Arden was silent for some little time, and they could see in the +moonlight that his face was very grave and thoughtful. At last he +said, as if it had been wrung from him: + +"Miss Allen, to be honest with you and myself, I have never given the +subject such a fair examination." After a moment he continued, "Even +if I became convinced that all were true, I might still remain at +home, for I could find far more advantage in reading books, or the +Bible itself, than from Mr. Knox's dry sermons." + +"I think you are wrong," said Edith, gently but firmly. "Granting the +premise you admitted a moment ago, that Christ was one of the purest +and noblest of men, you surely, with your chivalric instincts, would +say that such a man ought to be imitated." + +"Yes," said Arden, "and He denounced the Pharisees." + +"And He worshipped with them also," said Edith, quickly. "He went to +the temple with the others. What was there to interest Him in the +dreary forlorn little synagogue at Nazareth? and yet He was there with +the regularity of the Sabbath. It was the best form of faith and +worship then existing, and He sustained it by every means in His +power, till He could give the people something better. Suppose all the +churches in this place were closed, not one in a hundred would or +could read the books you refer to. If your example were followed they +would be closed. As far as your example goes it tends to close them. I +have heard Mr. Knox say, that wherever Christian worship and the +Christian Sabbath are not observed, society rapidly deteriorates. Is +it not true?" + +They had stopped at Edith's gate. Arden averted his face for a moment, +then turning toward Edith he gave her his hand, saying: + +"Yes, it is true, and a true, faithful friend you have been to me to-night. I admit myself vanquished." + +Edith gave his hand a cordial pressure, saying earnestly, "You are not +vanquished by the young ignorant girl, Edith Allen, but by the truth +that will yet vanquish the world." + +After that Arden went regularly with them to church, and tried to give +sincere attention to the service, but his uncurbed fancy was wandering +to the ends of the earth most of the time; or his thoughts were +dwelling in rapt attention on Edith. She, after all, was the only +object of his faith and worship, though he had a growing intellectual +conviction that her faith was true. + +And so the months passed into autumn, but with the nicest sense of +honor he refrained from word or deed that would remind Edith that he +was her lover. She became greatly attached to him, and he seemed +almost like a brother to her. She found increasing pleasure in his +society, for Arden, after the restraint of his diffidence was +banished, could talk well, and he opened to her the rich treasures of +his reading, and with almost a poet's fancy and power pictured to her +the storied past. + +To both herself and Mrs. Lacey, life grew sunnier and sweeter. But +they each had a heavy burden on their hearts, which they daily brought +to the feet of the Compassionate One. They united in praying for Mrs. +Lacey's husband, and for Zell; and their strong faith and love would +take no denial. But, as Laura had said, the silence of the grave +seemed to have swallowed lost Zell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +ZELL + + + +"And the silence of the grave ought to swallow such as poor Zell had +become," is, perhaps, the thought of some. All reference to her and +her class should be suppressed. + +We firmly say, No! If so, the New Testament must be suppressed. The +Divine Teacher spoke plainly both of the sin and the sinner. He had +scathing denunciation for the one, and compassion and mercy for the +other. Shall we enforce His teachings against all other forms of evil, +and not against this deadliest one of all--and that, too, in the +laxity and wide demoralization of our age, when temptation lurks on +every hand, and parents are often sleepless with just anxiety? + +Evil is active, alluring, suggesting, insinuating itself when least +expected, and many influences are at work, with the full approval of +society, to poison forever all pure thoughts. And temptation is sure +to come at first as an angel of light. + +There is no safety save in solemn words of warning, the wholesome +terror which knowledge inspires, the bracing of principle, and the +ennobling of Christian faith. There are too many incarnate fiends who +will take advantage of the innocence of ignorance. + +Zell is not in her grave. She is sinning, but more sinned against. He +who said to one like her, of old, "Her sins, which are many, are +forgiven," loves her still, and Edith is praying for her. The grave +cannot close over her yet. + +But as we look upon this long-lost one, as she reclines on a sofa in +Van Dam's luxurious apartments, as we see her temples throbbing with +pain, and that her cheeks are flushed and feverish, it would seem that +the grave might soon hide her from a contemptuous and vindictive +world. + +Her head does ache sadly--it seems bursting with pain; but her heart +aches with a bitterer anguish. Zell had too fine a nature to sin +brutally and unfeelingly. Her betrayer's treachery wounded her more +deeply than he could understand. Even her first strong love for him +could not bridge the chasm of guilt to which he led her, and her +passionate nature and remorse often caused her to turn upon, him with +such scathing reproaches that even he, in his hardihood, trembled. + +Knowing how proud and high-strung she was, he feared to reveal his +treachery in New York, a locality with which she was familiar; so he +said that very important business called him at once to Boston, a city +where he had few acquaintances. Zell reluctantly acquiesced in this +further journey. + +They jaunted about in the North and West through the summer and +autumn, and now have but recently returned to New York. + +With a wild terror she saw that his passion for her was waning. +Therefore, her reproaches and threats became at times almost terrific, +and again her servile entreaties were even more pitiable and dreadful, +in view of what a true wife's position and right ought to be. He, +wearying of her fierce and alternating moods, and selfishly thinking +of his own ease and comfort, as was ever the case, had resolved to +throw her off at the first opportunity. + +But retribution for both was near. The smallpox was almost epidemic in +the city: Zell's silk had swept against a beggar's infected rags, and +fourteen days later appeared the fatal symptoms. + +And truly she is weary and heart-sick this afternoon. She never +remembered feeling so ill. The thought of death appalled her. She +felt, as never before, that she wanted some one to love and take care +of her. + +Van Dam entered, and said, rather roughly: + +"What's the matter?" + +"I'm sick," said Zell, faintly. + +He muttered an oath. + +She arose from the sofa and tottered to his easy-chair, knelt, and +clasped his knees. + +"Guilliam," she pleaded, "I am very sick. I have a feeling that I +shall die. Won't you marry me? Won't you take care of your poor little +Zell, that loved you so well as to leave all for you? Perhaps I +sha'n't burden you much longer, but, if I do get well, I will be your +patient slave, if you will only marry me;" and the tears poured over +the hot, feverish cheeks, that they could not cool. + +His only reply was to ask, with some irritation: + +"How do you feel?" + +"Oh, my head aches, my bones ache, every part of my body aches, but my +heart aches worst of all. You can ease that, Guilliam. In the name of +God's mercy, won't you?" + +A sudden thought caused the coward's face to grow white with fear. "I +must have a doctor see you," was his only reply to her appeal, and he +passed hastily out. + +Zell felt that a blow would have been better than his indifference, +and she crawled back to her couch. A little later, she was conscious +that a physician was feeling her pulse, and examining her symptoms. +After he was gone she had strength enough to take off her jewelry and +rings--all, save one solitaire diamond, that her father had given her. +The rest seemed to oppress her with their weight. She then threw +herself on the bed. + +She was next conscious that some one was lifting her up. She roused +for a moment, and stared around. There were several strange faces. + +"What do you want? What are you going to do with me?" she asked, in a +thick voice, and in vague terror. + +"I am sorry, miss," said one of the men, in an official tone; "but you +have the smallpox, and we must take you to the hospital." + +She gave one shriek of horror. A hand was placed over her mouth. She +murmured faintly: + +"Guilliam--help!" and then, under the effects of disease and fear, +became partially unconscious; but her hand clenched, and with some +instinct hard to understand, remained so, over the diamond ring that +was her father's gift. + +She was conscious of riding in something hard over the stony street, +for the jolting hurt her cruelly. She was conscious of the sound of +water, for she tried to throw herself into it, that it might cool her +fever. She was conscious of reaching some place, and then she felt as +if she had no rest for many days, and yet was not awake. But through +it all she kept her hand closed on her father's gift. At times it +seemed to her that some one was trying to take it off, but she +instinctively struggled and cried out, and the hand was withdrawn. + +At last one night she seemed to wake and come to herself. She opened +her eyes and looked timidly around the dim ward. All was strange and +unaccountable. She feared that she was in another world. But as she +raised her hand to her head, as if to clear away the mist of +uncertainty, a sparkle from the diamond caught her eye. For a long +time she stared vacantly at it, with the weak, vague feeling that in +some sense it might be a clew. Its faint lustre was like the glimmer +of a star through a rift in the clouds to a lost traveller. Its +familiar light and position remind him of home, and by its ray he +guesses in what direction to move; so the crystallized light upon her +finger threw its faint glimmer into the past, and by its help Zell's +weak mind groped its way down from the hour it was given to the moment +when she became partially unconscious in Van Dam's apartments. But the +word smallpox was burned into her brain, and she surmised that she was +in a hospital. + +At last a woman passed. Zell feebly called her. + +"What do you want?" said a rather gruff voice. + +"I want to write a letter." + +"You can't. It's against the rules." + +"I must," pleaded Zell. "Oh, as you are a woman, and hope in God's +mercy, don't refuse me." + +"Can't break the rules," said the woman, and she was about to pass on. + +"Stop!" said Zell, in a whisper. "See there," and she flashed the +diamond upon her. "I'll give you that if you'll promise before God to +send a letter for me. It would take you many months to earn the value +of that." + +The woman was a part of the city government, so she acted +characteristically. She brought Zell writing materials and a bit of +candle, saying: + +"Be quick!" + +With her poor, stiff, diseased hand, Zell wrote: + +"Guilliam--You cannot know where I am. You cannot know what has +happened. You could not be such a fiend as to cast me off and send me +here to die--and die I shall. The edge of the grave seems crumbling +under me as I write. If you have a spark of love for me, come and see +me before I die. Oh, Guilliam, Guilliam! what a heaven of a home I +would have made you, if you had only married me! It would have been my +whole life to make you happy. I said bitter words to you--forgive +them. We both have sinned--can God forgive us? I will not believe you +know what has happened. You are grieving for me--looking for me. They +took me away while you were gone. Come and see me before I die. Good-by, I'm writing in the dark--I'm dying in the dark--my soul is in the +dark--I'm going away in the dark--where, O God, where? + "Your poor little Zell. + "Smallpox Hospital (I don't know date)." + +Poor, poor Zell! As in the case of a tempest-tossed one of old, "sun, +moon, and stars" had long been hidden. + +Almost fainting with weakness, she sealed and directed the letter, +drew off the ring, pressed it to her lips, and then turned her eyes, +unnaturally large and bright, on the woman waiting at her side, and +said: + +"Look at me! Promise me you will see that this letter is delivered. +Remember, I am going to die. If you ever hope for an hour's peace, +promise!" + +"I promise," said the woman solemnly, for she was as superstitious as +avaricious, and though she had no hesitancy in breaking the rules and +taking a bribe, she would not have dared for her life to have risked +treachery to a girl whom she believed dying. + +Zell gave her the ring and the letter, and sank back for the time +unconscious. + +The woman had her means of communication with the city, and before +many hours elapsed the letter was on its way. + +Van Dam was in a state of nervous fear till the fourteen days passed, +and then he felt that he was safe. He had his rooms thoroughly +fumigated, and was reassured by his physicians saying daily: "There +was not much danger of her giving you the disease in its first stage. +She is probably dead by this time." + +But the wheels of life seemed to grow heavier and more clogged every +day. He was fast getting down to the dregs, and now almost every +pleasure palled upon his jaded taste. At one time it seemed that Zell +might so infuse her vigorous young life and vivacity into his waning +years that his last days would be his best. And this might have been +the case, if he had reformed his evil life and dealt with her as a +true man. In her strong and exceptional love, considering their +difference in age, there were great possibilities of good for both. +But he had foully perverted the last best gift of his life, and even +his blunted moral sense was awakening to the truth. + +"Curse it all," he muttered, late one morning, "perhaps I had better +have married her. I hoped so much from her, and she has been nothing +but a source of trouble and danger. I wonder if she is dead." + +He had been out very late the night before, and had played heavily, +but not with his usual skill. He had kept muttering grim oaths against +his luck, and drinking deeper and deeper till a friend had half forced +him away. And now, much shaken by the night's debauch, depressed by +his heavy losses, conscience, that crouches like a tiger in every bad +man's soul, and waits to rush from its lair and rend, in the long +hours--the long _eternity_ of weakness and memory--already had its +fangs in his guilty heart. + +Long and bitterly he thought, with a frown resting like night on his +heavy brow. The servant brought him a dainty breakfast, but he +sullenly motioned it away. He had wronged his digestive powers so +greatly the night before that even brandy was repugnant to him, and he +leaned heavily and wearily back in his chair, a prey to remorse. + +He was in just the right physical condition to take a contagious +disease. + +There was a knock at the door, and the servant entered, bringing him a +letter, saying, "This was just left here for ye, sir." + +"A dun," thought he, languidly, and he laid it unopened on the stand +beside him. + +It was; and from one whom he owed a reparation he could never make, +though he paid with his life. + +With his eyes closed, he still leaned back in a dull, painful +lethargy. A faint, disagreeable odor gradually pervaded the room, and +at last attracted his attention. The luxurious sybarite could not help +the stings of conscience, the odor he might. He grew restless, and +looked around. + +Zell's letter caught his attention. "Might as well see who it's from," +he muttered. Weakness, pain, and emotion had so changed Zell's +familiar hand, that he did not recognize it. + +But, as he opened and read, his eyes dilated with horror. It seemed +like a dead hand grasping him out of the darkness. But a dreadful +fascination compelled him to read every line, and re-read them, till +they seemed burned into his memory. At last, by a desperate effort, he +broke the strong spell her words had placed upon him, and, starting +up, exclaimed: + +"Go to her, in that pest-house! I would see her dead a thousand times +first. I hope she is dead, for she is the torment of my life. What is +it that smells so queer?" + +His eyes again rested on the letter. A suspicion crossed his mind. He +carried the letter to his nose, and then started violently, uttering +awful oaths. + +"She has sent the contagion directly to me," he groaned, and he threw +poor Zell's appeal on the grate. It burned with a faint, sickly odor. +Then, as the day was raw and windy, a sudden gust down the chimney +blew it all out into the room, and scattered it in ashes, like Zell's +hopes, around his feet. + +A superstitious horror that made his flesh creep and hair rise took +possession of him, and hastily gathering a few necessary things, he +rushed out into the chill air, and made his way to a large hotel. He +wanted to be in a crowd. He wanted the hard, material world's noise +and bustle around him. He wanted to hear men talking about gold and +stocks, and the gossip of the town-anything that would make living on +seem a natural, possible matter of course. + +But men's voices sounded strange and unfamiliar, and the real world +seemed like that which mocks us in our dreams. Mingling with all he +saw and heard were Zell's despairing looks and Zell's despairing +words. He wrapped himself in his great coat, he drank frequent and +fiery potations, he hovered around the registers, but nothing could +take away the chill at his heart. He tossed feverishly all night. His +sudden exposure to the raw wind in his heated, excited condition +caused a severe cold. But he would not give up. He dared not stay +alone in his room, and so crept down to the public haunts of the +hotel. But his flushed cheeks and strange manner attracted attention. +As the days passed, he grew worse, and the proprietor of the house +said: + +"You are ill, you must go to bed." + +But he would not. There was nothing that he seemed to dread so much as +being alone. But the guests began to grow afraid of him. There was +general and widespread fear of the smallpox in the city, and for some +reason it began to be associated with his illness. As the suspicion +was whispered around, all shrank from him. The proprietor had him +examined at once by a physician. It was the fatal fourteenth day, and +the dreaded symptoms were apparent. + +"Have you no friends, no home to which you can go?" he was asked. + +"No," he groaned, while the thought pierced his soul. "She would have +made me one and taken care of me in it." But he pleaded, "For God's +sake, don't send me away." + +"I must," said the proprietor, frightened himself. "The law requires +it, and your presence here would empty my house in an hour." + +So, in the dusk, like poor Zell, he was smuggled down a back stairway, +and sent to the "pest-house" also, he groaning and crying with terror +all the way. + +Zell did not die. Her vigorous constitution rallied, and she rapidly +regained strength. But with strength and power of thought came the +certainty to her mind of Van Barn's utter and final abandonment of +her. She felt that all the world would now be against her, and that +she would be driven from every safe and pleasant path. The thought of +taking her shame to her home was a horror to her, and she felt sure +that Edith would spurn her from the door. At first she wept bitterly +and despairingly, and wished she had died. But gradually she grew +hard, reckless, and cruel under her wrong, and her every thought of +Van Bam was a curse. + +The woman who helped her to write the letter greatly startled her one +day by saying: + +"There's a man in the men's ward who in his ravin' speaks of you." + +"Could he, in just retribution, have been sent here also?" she +thought. Pleading relationship, she was admitted to see him. He +shuddered as he saw her advancing, with stony face and eyes in which +glared relentless hate. + +"Curse you!" he muttered, feebly, with his parched lips. "Go away, +living or dead, I know not which you are; but I know it was through +you I came here!" + +Her only answer was a mocking smile. + +The doctor came and examined his symptoms. + +"Will he get well?" she asked, following him away a short distance. + +"No," said the physician. "He will die." + +Her cheek blanched for a moment; but from her eyes glowed a deadly +gleam of satisfaction. + +"What did he say?" whispered Van Dam. + +"He says you will die," she answered, in a stony voice. "You see, I am +better than you were. You would not come to me for even one poor +moment. You left me to die alone; but I will stay and watch with you." + +"Oh, go away!" groaned Van Dam. + +"I couldn't be so heartless," she said, in a mocking tone. "You need +dying consolation, I want to tell you, Guilliam, what was in my mind +the night I left all for you. I did doubt you a little. That is where +I sinned; but I shall only suffer for that through all eternity," she +said, with a reckless laugh that chilled his soul. "But then, I hoped, +I felt almost sure, you would marry me; and, oh, what a heaven of a +home I purposed to make you! If you had only let even a magistrate +say, 'I pronounce you man and wife,' I would have been your patient +slave. I would have kissed away even your headaches, and had you ten +contagions, I would not have left you. I would have taken care of you +and nursed you back to life." + +"Go away!" groaned Van Dam, with more energy. + +"Guilliam," she said, taking his hand, which shuddered at her touch, +"we might have had a happy little home by this time. We might have +learned to live a good life in this world and have prepared for a +better one in the next. Little children might have put their soft arms +around your neck, and with their innocent kisses banished the memory +and the power of the evil past. Oh," she gasped, "how happy we might +have been, and mother, Edith, and Laura would have smiled upon us. But +what is now our condition?" she said, bitterly, her grip upon his hand +becoming hard and fierce. "You have made me a tigress. I must cower +and hide through life like a wild beast in a jungle. And you are dying +and going to hell," she hissed in his ear, "and by and by, when I get +to be an old ugly hag, I will come and torment you there forever and +forever." + +"Curse you, go away," shrieked the terror-stricken man. + +An attendant hastened to the spot; Zell was standing at the foot of +the cot, glaring at him. + +"I thought you was a relation of his'n," said the man, roughly. + +"So I am," said Zell, sternly. "As the one stung is related to the +viper that stung him," and with a withering look she passed away. + +That night Van Dam died. + +In process of time Zell was turned adrift in the city. She applied +vainly at stores and shops for a situation. She had no good clothes, +and appearances were against her. She had a very little money in her +portemonnaie when she was taken to the hospital. This was given to her +on leaving, and she made it go as far as possible. At last she went to +an intelligence office and sat among the others, who looked +suspiciously at her. They instinctively felt that she was not of their +sort. + +"What can you do?" was the frequent question. + +She did not know how to do a single thing, but thought that perhaps +the position of waitress would be the easiest. + +"Where are your references?" + +It was her one thought and effort to conceal all reference to the +past. At last the proprietor in pity sent her to a lady who had told +him to supply her with a waitress; the place was in Brooklyn, and Zell +was glad, for she had less fear there of seeing any one she knew. + +The lady scolded bitterly about such an ignoramus being sent to her, +but Zell seemed so patient and willing that she decided to try her. +Zell gave her whole soul to the work, and though the place was a hard +one, would have eventually learned to fill it. The family were a +little surprised sometimes at her graceful movements, and the quick +gleams of intelligence in her large eyes as some remark was made +naturally beyond me in her sphere. One day they were trying to recall, +while at the table, the name of a famous singer at the opera. Before +she thought, the name was almost out of her lips. The poor girl tried +to disguise herself by assuming, as well as she could, the stolid, +stupid manner of those who usually blunder about our homes. + +All might have gone well, and she have gained an honest livelihood, +had not an unforeseen circumstance revealed her past life. Those who +have done wrong are never safe. At the most unexpected time, and in +the most unexpected way, their sin may stand out before all and blast +them. + +Zell's mistress had told her to make a little extra preparation for +she expected a gentleman to dine that evening. With some growing pride +and interest in her work, she had done her best, and even her mistress +said: + +"Jane" (her assumed name), "you are improving," and a gleam of +something like hope and pleasure shot across the poor child's face. A +passionate sigh came up from her heart-- + +"Oh, I will try to do right if the world will let me." + +But imagine her terror as she saw an old crony of Van Dam's enter the +room. The man recognized her in a moment, and she saw that he did. She +gave him an imploring glance, which he returned by one of cool +contempt. Zell could hardly get through the meal, and her manner +attracted attention. The cold-blooded fellow, whose soul was akin to +that of his dead friend, was considerate enough to his hostess not to +spoil her dinner or rob her of a waitress till it was over. But the +moment they returned to the parlor he told who Zell was, and how she +must have just come from the smallpox hospital. + +The lady (?) was in a frenzy of rage and fear. She rushed down to +where Zell was panting with weakness and emotion, exclaiming: + +"You shameful hussy, how dare you come into a respectable house, after +your loathsome life and loathsome disease?" + +"Hear me," pleaded Zell; "the doctor said there was no danger, and I +want to do what is right." + +"I don't believe a word you say. I wouldn't trust you a minute. How +much you have stolen now it will be hard to tell, and I shouldn't +wonder if we all had the smallpox. Leave the house instantly." + +"Oh, please give me a chance," cried Zell, on her knees. "Indeed, I am +honest. I'll work for you for nothing, if you will let me stay." + +"Leave instantly, or I will call for a policeman." + +"Then pay me my week's wages," sobbed Zell. + +"I won't pay you a cent, you brazen creature. You didn't know how to +do anything, and have been a torment ever since you came. I might have +known there was something wrong. Now go, take your old, pest-infected +rags out of my house, or I will have you sent to where you properly +belong. Thank Heaven, I have found you out." + +A sudden change came over Zell. She sprang up, and a scowl black as +night darkened her face. + +"What has Heaven to do with your sending a poor girl out into the +night, I would like to know?" she asked, in a harsh, grating voice; "I +wouldn't do it. Therefore, I am better than you are. Heaven has +nothing to do with either you or me;" and she looked so dark and +dangerous that her mistress was frightened, and ran up to the parlor, +exclaiming: + +"She's an awful creature. I'm afraid of her." + +Then that manly being, her husband, towered up in his wrath, saying, +majestically, "I guess I'm master in my own house yet." + +He showed poor Zell the door. Her laugh rang out recklessly, as she +called-- + +"Good-by. May the pleasant thought that you have sent one more soul to +perdition lull you to sweet sleep." + +But, for some reason, it did not. When they became cool enough to +think it over, they admitted that perhaps they had been a "little +hasty." + +They had a daughter of about Zell's age. It would be a little hard if +any one should treat her so. + +Zell had scarcely more than enough to pay her way to New York. It +seemed that people ought to stretch out their hands to shield her, but +they only jostled her in their haste. As she stood, with her bundle, +in the ferry entrance on the New York side, undecided where to go, a +man ran against her in his hurry. + +"Get out of the way," he said, irritably. + +She moved out one side into the darkness, and with a pallid face said: + +"Yes, it has come to this. I must 'get out of the way' of all decent +people. There is the river on one side. There are the streets on the +other. Which shall it be?" + +"Oh! it was pitiful, + Near a whole city full," + +that no hand was stretched to her aid. + +She shuddered. "I can't, I dare not die yet. It must be a little +easier here than there, where he is." + +Her face became like stone. She went straight to a liquor saloon, and +drank deep of that spirit that Shakespeare called "devil," in order to +drown thought, fear, memory--every vestige of the woman. + +Then--the depths of the gulf that Laura shrank from with a dread +stronger than her love of life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +EDITH BRINGS THE WANDERER HOME + + + +Mrs. Lacey and Arden, at last, in the stress of their poverty, gave +their consent that Rose should go to the city and try to find +employment in a store as a shop-girl. Mrs. Glibe, her dressmaking +friend, went with her, and though they could obtain no situation the +first day, one of Mrs. Glibe's acquaintances directed Rose where she +could find a respectable boarding-house, from which, as her home, she +could continue her inquiries. Leaving her there, Mrs. Glibe returned. + +Rose, with a hope and courage not easily dampened, continued her +search the next day, and for several days following. The fall trade +had not fairly commenced, and there seemed no demand for more help. +She had thirty dollars with which to start life, but a week of +idleness took seven of this. + +At last her fine appearance and sprightly manner induced the +proprietor of a large establishment to put her in the place of a girl +discharged that day, with the wages of six dollars a week. + +"We give but three or four, as a general thing, to beginners," he +said. + +Rose was grateful for the place, and yet almost dismayed at the +prospect before her. How could she live on six dollars? The bright-colored dreams of city life were fast melting away before the hard, +and in some instances revolting, facts of her experience. She could +have obtained situations in two or three instances at better wages, if +she had assented to conditions that sent her hastily into the street +with burning blushes and indignant tears. She knew the great city was +full of wickedness, but this rude contact with it appalled her. + +After finding what she had to live on, she exchanged her somewhat +comfortable room, where she could have a fire, for a cold, cheerless +attic closet in the same house. "As I learn the business, they will +give more," she thought, and the idea of going home penniless, to be +laughed at by Mrs. Glibe, Miss Klip, and others was almost as bitter a +prospect to her proud spirit as being a burden to her impoverished +family, and she resolved to submit to every hardship rather than do +it. By taking the attic room she reduced her board to five dollars a +week. + +"You can't get it for less, unless you go to a very common sort of a +place," said her landlady. "My house is respectable, and people must +pay a little for that." + +In view of this fact, Rose determined to stay, if possible, for she +was realizing more every day how unsheltered and tempted she was. + +Her fresh blond face, her breezy manner, and her wind-shaken curls +made many turn to look after her. Like some others of her sex, perhaps +she had no dislike for admiration, but in Rose's position it was often +shown by looks, manner, and even words, that, however she resented +them, followed and persecuted her. + +As she grew to know her fellow-workers better, her heart sickened in +disgust at the conversation and the evident life of many of them, and +they often laughed immoderately at her greenness. + +Alas for the fancied superiority of these knowing girls! They laughed +at Rose because she was so much more like what God meant a woman +should be than they. A weak-minded, shallow girl would have succumbed +to their ridicule, and soon have become like them, but high-spirited +Rose only despised them, and gradually sought out and found some +companionship with those of the better sort in the large store. But +there seemed so much hollowness and falsehood on every side that she +hardly knew whom to trust. + +Poor Rose was quite sick of making a career for herself alone in the +city, and her money was getting very low. Shop life was hard on +clothes, and she was compelled by the rules of the store to dress +well, and was only too fond of dress herself. So, instead of getting +money ahead, she at last was reduced to her wages as support, and +nothing was said of their being raised, and she was advised to say +nothing about any increase. Then she had a week's sickness, and this +brought her in debt to her landlady. + +Several times during her evening walks home Rose noticed a dark face +and two vivid black eyes, that seemed watching her; but as soon as +observed, the face vanished. It haunted her with its suggestion of +some one seen before. + +She went back to her work too soon after her illness, and had a +relapse. Her respectable landlady was a woman of system and rules. +From long experience, she foresaw that her poor lodger would grow only +more and more deeply in her debt. Perhaps we can hardly blame her. It +was by no easy effort that she made ends meet as it was. She had an +application for Rose's little room from one who gave more prospect of +being able to pay, so she quietly told the poor girl to vacate it. +Rose pleaded to stay, but the woman was inexorable. She had passed +through such scenes so often that they had become only one of the +disagreeable phases of her business. + +"Why, child," she said, "if I did not live up to my rule in this +respect, I'd soon be out of house and home myself. You can leave your +things here till you find some other place." + +So poor Rose, weak through her sickness, more weak through terror, +found herself out in the streets of the great city, utterly penniless. +She was so unfamiliar with it that she did not know where to go, or to +whom to apply. It was her purpose to find a cheaper boarding-house. +She went down toward the meaner and poorer part of the city, and +stopped at the low stoop of a house where there was a sign, "Rooms to +let." + +She was about to enter, when a hand was laid sharply on her arm, and +some one said: + +"Don't go there. Come with me, quick!" + +"Who are you?" asked Rose, startled and trembling. + +"One who can help you now, whatever I am," was the answer. "I know you +well, and all about you. You are Hose Lacey, and you did live in +Pushton. Come with me, quick, and I will take you to a Christian lady +whom you can trust. Come." + +Rose, in her trouble and perplexity, concluded to follow her. They +soon made their way to quite a respectable street, and rang the bell +at the door of a plain, comfortable-appearing house. + +A cheery, stout, middle-aged lady opened it. She looked at Rose's new +friend, and reproachfully shook her finger at her, saying: + +"Naughty Zell, why did you leave the Home?" + +"Because I am possessed by a restless devil," was the strange answer. +"Besides, I can do more good in the streets than there. I have just +saved her" (pointing to Rose, who at once surmised that this was Zell +Allen, though so changed that she would not have known her). "Now," +continued Zell, thrusting some money into Rose's hand, "take this and +go home at once. Tell her, Mrs. Ranger, that this city is no place for +her." + +"If you have friends and a home to go to, it's the very best thing you +can do," said the lady. + +"But my friends are poor," sobbed Rose. + +"No matter, go to them," said Zell, almost fiercely. "I tell you there +is no place for you here, unless you wish to go to perdition. Go home, +where you are known. Scrub, delve, do anything rather than stay here. +Your big brother can and will take care of you, though he does look so +cross." + +"She is right, my child; you had better go at once," said the lady, +decidedly. + +"Who are you?" asked Rose of the latter speaker, with some curiosity. + +"I am a city missionary," answered the lady, quietly, "and it is my +business to help such poor girls as you are. I say to you from full +knowledge, and in all sincerity, to go home is the very best thing +that you can do." + +"But why is there not a chance for a poor, well-meaning girl to earn +an honest living in this great city?" + +"Thousands are earning such a living, but there is not one chance in a +hundred for you." + +"Why?" asked Rose, hotly, + +"Do you see all these houses? They are full of people," continued Mrs. +Ranger, "and some of them contain many families. In these families +there are thousands of girls who have a home, a shelter, and +protectors here in the city. They have society in relatives and +neighbors. They have no board to pay, and fathers and mothers, +brothers and sisters, helping support them. They put all their +earnings into a common fund, and it supports the family. Such girls +can afford, and will work for two, three, four, and five dollars a +week. All that they earn makes the burden so much less on the father, +who otherwise would have supported them in idleness. Now, a homeless +stranger in the city must pay board, and therefore they can't compete +with those who live here. Wages are kept too low. Not one in a +hundred, situated as you are, can earn enough to pay board and dress +as they are required to in the fashionable stores. Have you been +able?" + +"No," groaned Rose. "I am in debt to my landlady now, and I had some +money to start with." + +"There it is," said Mrs. Ranger, sadly; "the same old story." + +"But these stores ought to pay more," said Rose, indignantly. + +"They will only pay for labor, as for everything else, the market +price, and that averages but six dollars a week, and more are working +for from three to five than for six. As I told you, there are +thousands of girls living in the city glad to get a chance at any +price." + +Rose gave a weary, discouraged sigh and said, "I fear you are right, I +must go home. Indeed, after what has happened I hardly dare stay." + +"Go," said Zell, "as if you were leaving Sodom, and don't look back." +Then she asked, with a wistful, hungry look, "Have you see any of--?" +She stopped--she could not speak the names of her kindred. + +"Yes," said Rose, gently. (Yesterday she would have stood coldly aloof +from Zell. To-day she was very grateful and full of sympathy.) "I know +they are well. They were all sick after--after you went away. But they +got well again, and (lowering her voice) Edith prays for you night and +day." + +"Oh! oh!" sobbed Zell, "this is torment, this is to see the heaven I +cannot enter," and she dashed away. + +"Poor child!" said Mrs. Ranger, "there's an angel in her yet if I only +knew how to bring it out. I may see her to-morrow, and I may not for +weeks. Take the money she left with you, and here is some more. It may +help her, to think that she helped you. And now, my dear, let me see +you safely on your way home." + +That night the stage left Rose at the poor dilapidated little +farmhouse, and in her mother's close embrace she felt the blessedness +of the home shelter, however poor, and the protecting love of kindred, +however plain. + +"Arden is away," said the quiet woman of few words. "He is home only +twice a month. He has a job of cutting and carting wood a good way +from here. We are so poor this winter he had to take this chance. Your +father is doing better. I hope for him, though with fear and +trembling." + +Then Rose told her mother her experience and how she had been saved by +Zell, and the poor woman clasped her daughter to her breast again and +again, and with streaming eyes raised toward heaven, poured out her +gratitude to God. + +"Rose," said she, with a shudder, "if I had not prayed so for you +night and day, perhaps you would not have found such friends in your +time of need. Oh! let us both pray for that poor lost one, that she +may be saved also." + +From this day forth Rose began to pray the true prayer of pity, and +then the true prayer of a personal faith. The rude, evil world had +shown her her own and others' need, in a way that made her feel that +she wanted the Heavenly Father's care. + +In other respects she took up her life for a time where she had left +it a few months before. + +Edith was deeply moved at Rose's story, and Zell's wild, wayward steps +were followed by prayers, as by a throng of reclaiming angels. + +"I would go and bring her home in a moment, if I only knew where to +find her," said Edith. + +"Mrs. Ranger said she would write as soon as there was any chance of +your doing so," said Rose. + +About the middle of January a letter came to Edith as follows: + +"Miss Edith Allen--Your sister, Zell, is in Bellevue Hospital, +Ward --. Come quickly; she is very ill." + +Edith took the earliest train, and was soon following an attendant, +with eager steps, down the long ward. They came to a dark-eyed girl +that was evidently dying, and Edith closed her eyes with a chill of +fear. A second glance showed that it was not Zell, and a little +further on she saw the face of her sister, but so changed! Oh! the +havoc that sin and wretchedness had made in that beautiful creature +during a few short months! She was in a state of unconscious, +muttering delirium, and Edith showered kisses on the poor, parched +lips; her tears fell like rain on the thin, flushed face. Zell +suddenly cried, with the girlish voice of old: + +"Hurrah, hurrah! books to the shades; no more teachers and tyrants for +me." + +She was living over the old life, with its old, fatal tendencies. + +Edith sat down, and sobbed as if her heart would break. Unnoticed, a +stout, elderly lady was regarding her with eyes wet with sympathy. As +Edith's grief subsided somewhat she laid her hand on the poor girl's +shoulder, saying: + +"My child, I feel very sorry for you. For some reason I can't pass on +and leave you alone in your sorrow, though we are total strangers. +Your trouble gives you a sacred claim upon me. What can I do for you?" + +Edith looked up through her tears, and saw a kind, motherly face, with +a halo of gray curls around it. With woman's intuition she trusted her +instantly, and, with another rush of tears, said: + +"This is--my--poor lost-sister. I've--just found her." + +"Ah!" said the lady, significantly, "God pity you both." + +"Were it not--for Him," sobbed Edith, with her hand upon her aching +heart, "I believe--I should die." + +The lady sat down by her, and took her hand, saying, "I will stay with +you, dear, till you feel better." + +Gradually and delicately she drew from Edith her story, and her large +heart yearned over the two girls in the sincerest sympathy. + +"I was not personally acquainted with your father and mother, but I +know well who they were," she said. "And now, my child, you cannot +remain here much longer; where are you going to stay?" + +"I haven't thought," said Edith, sadly. + +"I have," replied the lady, heartily; "I am going to take you home +with me. We don't live very far away, and you can come and see your +sister as often as you choose, within the limits of the rules." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Edith, deprecatingly, "I am not fit--I have no claim." + +"My child," said the lady, gently, "don't you remember what our Master +said, 'I was a stranger and ye took me in'? Is He not fit to enter my +house? Has He no claim? In taking you home I am taking Him home, and +so I shall be happy and honored in your presence. Moreover, my dear, +from what I have seen and heard, I am sure I shall love you for your +own sake." + +Edith looked at her through grateful tears, and said, "It has seemed +to me that Jesus has been comforting me all the time through your +lips. How beautiful Christianity is, when it is lived out. I will go +to your house as if it were His." + +Then she turned and pressed a loving kiss on Zell's unconscious face, +but her wonder was past words when the lady stooped down also, and +kissed the "woman which was a sinner." She seized her hand with both +of hers and faltered: + +"You don't despise and shrink from her, then?" + +"Despise her! no," said the noble woman. "I have never been tempted as +this poor child has. God does not despise her. What am I?" + +From that moment Edith could have kissed her feet, and feeling that +God had sent His angel to take care of her, she followed the lady from +the hospital. A plain but elegantly-liveried carriage was waiting, and +they were driven rapidly to one of the stateliest palaces on Fifth +Avenue. As they crossed the marble threshold, the lady turned and +said: + +"Pardon me, my dear, my name is Mrs. Hart. This is your home now as +truly as mine while you are with us," and Edith was shown to a room +replete with luxurious comfort, and told to rest till the six o'clock +dinner. + +With some timidity and fear she came down to meet the others. As she +entered she saw a portly man standing on the rug before the glowing +grate, with a shock of white hair, and a genial, kindly face. + +"My husband," said Mrs. Hart, "this is our new friend, Miss Edith +Allen. You knew her father well in business, I am sure." + +"Of course I did," said the old gentleman, taking Edith's hand in both +of his, "and a fine business man he was, too. You are welcome to our +home, Miss Edith. Look here, mother," he said, turning to his wife +with a quizzical look, and still keeping hold of Edith's hand, "you +didn't bring home an 'angel unawares' this time. I say, wife, you +won't be jealous if I take a kiss now, will you--a sort of scriptural +kiss, you know?" and he gave Edith a hearty smack that broke the ice +between them completely. + +With a face like a peony, Edith said, earnestly, "I am sure the real +angels throng your home." + +"Hope they do," said Mr. Hart, cheerily. "My old lady there is the +best one I have seen yet, but I am ready for all the rest. Here come +some of them," he added, as his daughters entered, and to each one he +gave a hearty kiss, counting, "one, two, three, four, five--now, 'all +present or accounted for?'" + +"Yes," said his wife, laughing. + +"Dinner, then," and after the young ladies had greeted Edith most +cordially, he gave her his arm, as if she had been a duchess, and +escorted her to the dining-room. After being seated, they bowed their +heads in quiet reverence, and the old man, with the voice and manner +of a child speaking to a father, thanked God for His mercies, and +invoked His blessing. + +The table-talk was genial and wholesome, with now and then a sparkle +of wit, or a broad gleam of humor. + +"My good wife there, Miss Edith," said Mr. Hart, with a twinkle in his +eye, "is a very sly old lady. If she does wear spectacles, she sees +with great discrimination, or else the world is growing so full of +interesting saints and sinners, that I am quite in hopes of it. Every +day she has a new story about some very good person, or some very bad +person becoming good. If you go on this way much longer, mother, the +millennium will commence before the doctors of divinity are ready for +it." + +"My dear," said Mrs. Hart, with a comic aside to Edith, "my husband +has never got over being a boy. When he will become old enough to +sober down, I am sure I can't tell." + +"What have I to sober me, with all these happy faces around, I should +like to know?" was the hearty retort. "I am having a better time every +day, and mean to go on so _ad infinitum_. You're a good one to talk +about sobering down, when you laugh more than any of these +youngsters." + +"Well," said his wife, her substantial form quivering with merriment, +"it's because you make me." + +During the meal Edith had time to observe the young ladies more +closely. They were fine-looking, and one or two of them really +beautiful. Two of them were in early girlhood yet, and there was not a +vestige of the vanity and affectation often seen in those of their +position. They evidently had wide diversities of character, and +faults, but there were the simplicity and sincerity about them which +make the difference between a chaste piece of marble and a painted +block of wood. She saw about her a house as rich and costly in its +appointments as her own old home had been, but it was not so crowded +or pronounced in its furnishing and decoration. There were fewer +pictures, but finer ones; and in all matters of art, French taste was +not prominent, as had been the case in her home. + +The next day she sat by unconscious Zell as long as was permitted, and +wrote fully to Laura. + +The dark-eyed girl that seemed dying the day before was gone. + +"Did she die?" she asked of an attendant. + +"Yes." + +"What did they do with her?" + +"Buried her in Potter's Field." + +Edith shuddered. "It would have been Zell's end," she thought, "if I +hadn't found her, and she had died here alone." + +That evening Mrs. Hart, as they all sat in her own private parlor, +said to her daughters: + +"Girls, away with you. I can't move a step without stumbling over one +of you. You are always crowding into my sanctum, as if there was not +an inch of room for you anywhere else. Vanish. I want to talk to +Edith." + +"It's your own fault that we crowd in here, mother," said the eldest. +"You are the loadstone that draws us." + +"I'll get a lot of stones to throw at you and drive you out with," +said the old lady, with mock severity. + +The youngest daughter precipitated herself on her mother's neck, +exclaiming: + +"Wouldn't that be fun, to see jolly old mother throwing stones at us. +She would wrap them in eider-down first." + +"Scamper; the whole bevy of you," said the old lady, laughing; and +Edith, with a sigh, contrasted this "mother's room" with the one which +she and her sisters shunned as the place where their "teeth were set +on edge." + +"My dear," said Mrs. Hart, her face becoming grave and troubled, +"there is one thing in my Christian work that discourages me. We +reclaim so few of the poor girls that have gone astray. I understand, +from Mrs. Ranger, that your sister was at the Home, but that she left +it. How can we accomplish more? We do everything we can for them." + +"I don't think earthly remedies can meet their case," said Edith, in a +low tone. + +"I agree with you," said Mrs. Hart, earnestly, "but we do give them +religious instruction." + +"I don't think religious instruction is sufficient," Edith answered. +"They need a Saviour." + +"But we do tell them about Jesus." + +"Not always in a way that they understand, I fear," said Edith, sadly. +"I have heard people tell about Him as they would about Socrates, or +Moses, or Paul. We don't need facts about Him so much as Jesus +Himself. In olden times people did not go to their sick and troubled +friends and tell them that Jesus was in Capernaum, and that He was a +great deliverer. They brought the poor, helpless creatures right to +Him. They laid them right at the feet of a personal Saviour, and He +helped them. Do we do this? I have thought a great deal about it," +continued Edith, "and it seems to me that more associate the ideas of +duty, restraint, and almost impossible effort with Him, than the ideas +of help and sympathy. It was so with me, I know, at first." + +"Perhaps you are right," said Mrs. Hart thoughtfully. "The poor +creatures to whom I referred seemed more afraid of God than anything +else." + +"And yet, of all that ever lived, Jesus was the most tender toward +them--the most ready to forgive and save. Believe me, Mrs. Hart, there +was more gospel in the kiss you gave my sister--there was more of +Jesus Christ in it, than in all the sermons ever written, and I am +sure that if she had been conscious, it would have saved her. They +must, as it were, _feel_ the hand of love and power that lifted +Peter out of the ingulfing waves. The idea of duty and sturdy self-restraint is perhaps too much emphasized, while they, poor things, are +weak as water. They are so 'lost' that He must just 'seek and save' +them, as He said--lift them up--keep them up almost in spite of +themselves. Saved--that is the word, as the limp, helpless form is +dragged out of danger. On account of my sister I have thought a good +deal about this subject, and there seems to me to be no remedy for +this class, save in the merciful, patient, personal Saviour. He had +wonderful power over them when He was on earth, and He would have the +same now, if His people could make them understand Him." + +"I think few of us understand this personal Saviour ourselves as we +ought," said Mrs. Hart, somewhat unveiling her own experience. "The +Romish Church puts the Virgin, saints, penances, and I know not what, +between the sinner and Jesus, and we put catechisms, doctrines, and a +great mass of truth about them, between Him and us. I doubt whether +many of us, like the beloved disciple, have leaned our heads on His +heart of love, and felt its throbs. Too much of the time He seems in +Heaven to me, not here." + +"I never had much religious instruction," said Edith, simply. "I found +Him in the New Testament, as people of old found Him in Palestine, and +I went to Him, just as I was, and He has been such a Friend and +Helper. He lets me sit at His feet like Mary, and the words He spoke +seem said directly to poor little me." + +Wistful tears came into Mrs. Hart's eyes, and she kissed Edith, +saying: + +"I have been a Christian forty years, my child, but you are nearer to +Him than I am. Stay close to His side. This talk has done me more good +than I imagined possible." + +"If I seem nearer," said Edith, gently, "isn't it, perhaps, because I +am weaker than you are? His 'sheep follow' Him, but isn't there some +place in the Bible about his 'carrying the lambs in His bosom'? I +think we shall find at last that He was nearer to us all than we +thought, and that His arm of love was around us all the time." + +In a sudden, strong impulse, Mrs. Hart embraced Edith, and, looking +upward, exclaimed: + +"Truly 'Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast +revealed them unto babes.' As my husband said, I am entertaining a +good angel." + +The physician gave Edith great encouragement about Zell, and told her +that in two weeks he thought she might be moved. The fever was taking +a light form. + +One evening, after listening to some superb music from Annie, the +second daughter, between whom and Edith quite an affinity seemed to +develop itself, the latter said: + +"How finely you play! I think you are wonderful for an amateur." + +"I am not an amateur," replied Annie, laughing. "Music is my +profession." + +"I don't understand," said Edith. + +"Father has made me study music as a science," explained Annie. +"I could teach it to-morrow. All of us girls are to have a profession. +Ella, my eldest sister, is studying drawing and painting. Here is a +portfolio of her sketches." + +Even Edith's unskilled eyes could see that she had made great +proficiency. + +"Ella could teach drawing and coloring at once," continued Annie, "for +she has studied the rules and principles very carefully, and given +great attention to the rudiments of art, instead of having a teacher +help her paint a few show-pictures. But I know very little about it, +for I haven't much taste that way. Father has us educated according to +our tastes; that is, if we show a little talent for any one thing, he +has us try to perfect ourselves in that one thing. Julia is the +linguist, and can jabber French and German like natives. Father also +insisted on our being taught the common English branches very +thoroughly, and he says he could get us situations to teach within a +month, if it were necessary." + +Edith sighed deeply as she thought how superficial their education had +been, but she said rather slyly to Annie, "But you are engaged. I +think your husband will veto the music-teaching." + +"Oh, well," said Annie, laughing, "Walter may fail, or get sick, or +something may happen. So you see we shouldn't have to go to the poor-house. Besides, there's a sort of satisfaction in knowing one thing +pretty well. But the half is not told you, and I suppose you will +think father and mother queer people; indeed, most of our friends do. +For mother has had a milliner come to the house, and a dressmaker, and +a hair-dresser, and whatever we have any knack at she has made us +learn well, some one thing, and some another. Wouldn't I like to dress +your long hair!" continued the light-hearted girl. "I would make you +so bewitching that you would break a dozen hearts in one evening. Then +mother has taught us how to cook, and to make bread and cake and +preserves, and Ella and I have to take turns in keeping house, and +marketing, and keeping account of the living expenses. The rest of the +girls are at school yet. Mother says she is not going to palm off any +frauds in her daughters when they get married; and if we only turn out +half as good as she is, our husbands will be lucky men, if I do say +it; and if all of us don't get any, we can take care of ourselves. +Father has been holding you up as an example of what a girl can do, if +she has to make her own way in the world." + +And the sprightly, but sensible, girl would have rattled on +indefinitely, had not Edith fled to her room in an uncontrollable rush +of sorrow over the sad, sad, "It might have been." + +One afternoon Annie came into Edith's room, saying, "I am going to +dress your hair. Yes, I will--now don't say a word, I want to. We +expect two or three friends in--one you'll be glad to see. No, I +won't tell you who it is. It's a surprise." And she flew at Edith's +head, pulled out the hairpins, and went to work with a dexterity and +rapidity that did credit to her training. In a little while she had +crowned Edith with nature's most exquisite coronet. + +A cloud of care seemed to rest on Mr. Hart's brow as they entered the +dining-room, but he banished it instantly, and with the quaint, +stately gallantry of the old school, pretended to be deeply smitten +with Edith's loveliness. And so lovely she appeared that their eyes +continually returned, and rested admiringly on her, till at last the +blushing girl remonstrated: + +"You all keep looking at me so that I feel as if I were the dessert, +and you were going to eat me up pretty soon." + +"I speak for the biggest bite," cried Mr. Hart, and they laughed at +her and petted her so that she said: + +"I feel as if I had known you all ten years." + +But ever and anon, Edith saw traces of the cloud of care that she had +noticed at first. And so did Mrs. Hart, for she said: + +"You have been a little anxious about business lately. Is there +anything new?" + +"No," said Mr. Hart, who, in contrast to Mr. Allen, talked business to +his family; "things are only growing a little worse. There have been +one or two bad failures today. The worst of it all is, there seems a +general lack of confidence. No one knows what is going to happen. One +feels as if in a thunder-shower. The lightning may strike him, and it +may fall somewhere else. But don't worry, good mother, I am as safe as +a man can be. I have a round million in my safe ready for an +emergency." + +The wife knew just where her husband stood that night. + +At nine o'clock, Edith was talking earnestly with Mrs. Ranger, whom +she had expressed a wish to see. There were a few other people present +of the very highest social standing, and intimate friends of the +family, for her kind entertainers would not expose her to any strange +and unsympathetic eyes. Annie was flitting about, the very spirit of +innocent mischief and match-making, gloating over the pleasure she +expected to give Edith. The bell rang, and a moment later she +marshalled in Gus Elliot, as handsome and exquisitely dressed as ever. +He was as much in the dark as to whom he should see as Edith. Some one +had told Annie of his former devotedness to Edith, and so she +innocently meant to do both a kindness. Having a slight acquaintance +with Elliot, as a general society man, she invited him this evening to +"meet an old friend." He gladly accepted, feeling it a great honor to +visit at the Harts'. + +He saw Edith a moment before she observed him, and had time to note +her exquisite beauty. But he turned pale with fear and anxiety in +regard to his reception. + +Then she raised her eyes and saw him. The blood rushed in a hot +torrent to her face, and then left it in extreme pallor. Gus advanced +with all the ease and grace that he could command under the +circumstances, and held out his hand. "She cannot refer to the past +here before them all," he thought. + +But Edith rose slowly, and fixed her large eyes, that glowed like +coals of fire, sternly upon him, and put her hand behind her back. + +All held their breath in awe-struck expectation. She seemed to see +only him and the past, and to forget all the rest. + +"No, sir," she said, in a low, deep voice, that curdled Gus's blood, +"I cannot take your hand. I might in pity, if you were in the depths +of poverty and trouble, as I have been, but not here and thus. Do you +know where my sister is?" + +"No," faltered Gus, his knees trembling under him. + +"She is in Bellevue Hospital. A poor girl was carried thence to +Potter's Field a day or two since. She might have been if I had not +found her. And," continued Edith, with her face darkening like night, +and her tone deepening till it sent a thrill of dread to the hearts of +all present, "_in_ Potter's Field _I_ might now have been if I had +listened to you." + +Gus trembled before her in a way that plainly confirmed her words. + +With a grand dignity she turned to Mrs. Hart, saying, "Please excuse +my absence; I cannot breathe the same air with him," and she was about +to sweep from the parlor like an incensed goddess, when Mr. Hart +sprang up, his eyes blazing with anger, and putting his arm around +Edith, said, sternly: + +"I would shield this dear girl as my own daughter. Leave this house, +and never cross my threshold again." + +Gus slunk away without a word. As the guilty will be at last, he was +"speechless." So, in a moment, when least expecting it, he fell from +his heaven, which was society: for the news of his baseness spread +like wildfire, and within a week every respectable door was closed +against him. + +Is it cynical to say that the well-known and widely-honored Mr. Hart, +in closing his door, had influence as well as Gus's sin, in leading +some to close theirs? Motives in society are a little mixed, +sometimes. + +Mr. Hart went down town the next morning, a little anxious, it is +true, on general principles, but not in the least apprehensive of any +disaster. "I may have to pay out a few hundred thousand," he thought, +"but that won't trouble me." + +But the bolt of financial suspicion was directed toward him; how, he +could not tell. Within half an hour after opening, checks for twelve +hundred thousand were presented at his counter. He telegraphed to his +wife, "A run upon me." Later, "Danger!" Then came the words to the +uptown palace, "Have suspended!" In the afternoon, "The storm will +sweep me bare, but courage, God, and our right hands, will make a +place and a way for us." + +The business community sympathized deeply with Mr. Hart. Hard, cool +men of Wall Street came in, and, with eyes moist with sympathy, wrung +his hand. He stood up through the wild tumult, calm, dignified, +heroic, because conscious of rectitude. + +"The shrinkage in securities will be great, I fear," he said, "but I +think my assets will cover all liabilities. We will give up +everything." + +When he came up home in the evening, he looked worn, and much older +than in the morning, but his wife and daughters seemed to envelop him +in an atmosphere of love and sympathy. They were so strong, cheerful, +hopeful, that they infused their courage into him. Annie ran to the +piano, and played as if inspired, saying to her father: + +"Let every note tell you that we can take care of ourselves, and you +and mother too, if necessary." + +The words were prophetic. The strain had been too great on Mr. Hart. +That night he had a stroke of paralysis and became helpless. But he +had trained his daughters to be the very reverse of helpless, and they +did take care of him with the most devoted love and skilled practical +energy, making the weak, brief remnant of his life not a burden, but a +peaceful evening after a glorious day. They all, except the youngest, +soon found employment, for they brought superior skill and knowledge +to the labor market, and such are ever in demand. Annie soon married +happily, and her younger sisters eventually followed her example. But +Ella, the eldest, remained single; and, though she never became +eminent as an artist, did become a very useful and respected teacher +of art, as studied in our schools for its refining influence. + +To return to Edith, she felt for her kind friends almost as much as if +she were one of the family. + +"Do not feel that you must go away because of what has happened," said +Mrs. Hart. "I am glad to have you with us, for you do us all good. +Indeed, you seem one of us. Stay as long as you can, dear, and God +help us both to bear our burdens." + +"Dear, 'heavy-laden' Mrs. Hart," said Edith, "Jesus will bear the +burdens for us, if we will let Him." + +"Bless you, child, I am sure He sent you to me." + +As Edith entered the ward that day, the attendant said, "She's +herself, miss, at last." + +Edith stole noiselessly to Zell's cot. She was sleeping. Edith sat +down silently and watched for her waking. At last she opened her eyes +and glanced fearfully around. Then she saw Edith, and instantly shrank +and cowered as if expecting a blow. + +"Zell," said Edith, taking the poor, thin hand, "Oh, Zell, don't you +know me?" + +"What are you going to do with me?" asked Zell, in a voice full of +dread. + +"Take you to my home--take you to my heart--take you deeper into my +love than ever before." + +"Edith," said Zell, almost cowering before her words as if they hurt +her, "I am not fit to go home." + +"Oh, Zell, darling," said Edith, tenderly, "God's love does not keep a +debit and credit account with us, neither should we with each other. +Can't you see that I love you?" and she showered kisses on her +sister's now pallid face. + +But Zell acted as if they were a source of pain to her, and she +muttered, "You don't know, you can't know. Don't speak of God to me, I +fear Him unspeakably." + +"I do know all," said Edith, earnestly, "and I love you more fondly +than ever I did before, and God knows and loves you more still." + +"I tell you you don't know," said Zell, almost fiercely. "You can't +know. If you did, you would spit on me and leave me forever. God +knows, and He has doomed me to hell, Edith," she added, in a hoarse +whisper. "I killed him--you know whom. And I promised that after I got +old and ugly I would come and torment him forever. I must keep my +promise." + +Edith wept bitterly. This was worse than delirium. She saw that her +sister's nature was so bruised and perverted, so warped, that she was +almost insane. She slowly rallied back into physical strength, but her +hectic cheek and slight cough indicated the commencement of +consumption. Her mind remained in the same unnatural condition, and +she kept saying to Edith, "You don't know anything about it at all. +You can't know." She would not see Mrs. Hart, and agreed to go home +with Edith only on condition that no one should see or speak with her +outside the family. + +At last the day of departure came. Mrs. Hart said, "You shall take her +to the depot in my carriage. It will be among its last and best uses." + +Edith kissed her kind friend good-by, saying, "God will send his +chariot for you some day, and though you must leave this, your +beautiful home, if you could only have a glimpse into the mansion +preparing for you up there, anticipation would almost banish all +thoughts of present loss." + +"Well, dear," said Mrs. Hart, with a gleam of her old humor, "I hope +your 'mansion' will be next door, for I shall want to see you often +through all eternity." + +Then Edith knelt before Mr. Hart's chair, and the old man's helpless +hands were lifted upon her head, and he looked to heaven for the +blessing he could not speak. + +"Our ways diverge now, but they will all meet again. Home is near to +you," she whispered in his ear as she kissed him good-by. + +The old glad light shone in his eyes, the old cheery smile flitted +across his lips, and thus she left him who had been the great, rich +banker, serene, happy, and rich in a faith that could not be lost in +any financial storm, or destroyed by disease, or enfeebled by age--she +left him waiting as a little child to go home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +EDITH'S GREAT TEMPTATION + + + +Though even Mrs. Allen was tearful and kind in her greeting, and Laura +warm and affectionate in the extreme, old Hannibal's welcome, so +frank, genuine, and innocent, seemed to soften Zell more than any +one's else. + +"You poor, heavenly-minded old fool," she said, with an unwonted tear +in her eye, "you don't know any better." + +Then she seemed to settle down into a dreamy apathy; to sit moping +around in shadowy places. She had a horror of meeting any one, even +Mrs. Lacey and Rose, and would not go out till after night. Edith saw, +more and more clearly, that she was almost insane in her shame and +despair, and that she would be a terrible burden to them all if she +remained in such a condition; but her love and patience did not fail. +They would, had they not been daily fed from heavenly sources. "I must +try to show her Jesus' love through mine," she thought. + +Poor Edith, the great temptation of her life was soon to assail her. +It was aimed at her weakest yet noblest side, her young enthusiasm and +spirit of self-sacrifice for others. And yet, it was but the natural +fruit of woman's helplessness and Mrs. Allen's policy of marrying +one's way out of poverty and difficulty. + +Simon Crowl had ostensibly made a very fair transaction with Edith, +but Simon Crowl was a widower at the time, and on the lookout for a +wife. He was a pretty sharp business man, Crowl was, or he wouldn't +have become so rich in little Pushton, and he at once was satisfied +that Edith, so beautiful, so sensible, would answer. Through the +mortgage he might capture her, as it were, for even his vanity did not +promise him much success in the ordinary ways of love-making. So the +spider spun his web, and unconscious Edith was the poor little fly. +During the summer he watched her closely, but from a distance. During +the autumn and winter he commenced calling, ostensibly on Mrs. Allen, +whom he at once managed to impress with the fact that he was very +rich. Though he brushed up his best coat and manners, that delicate-nosed lady scented an air and manner very different from what she had +been accustomed to, but she was half-dead with _ennui_, and, after +all, there was something akin between worldly Mrs. Allen and worldly +Mr. Crowl. Then, he was very rich. This had covered a multitude of +sins on the avenue. But, in the miserable poverty of Pushton, it was a +golden mantle of light. Mrs. Allen chafed at privation and want of +delicacies with the increasing persistency of an utterly weak and +selfish nature. She had no faith in Edith's plans, and no faith in +woman's working, and the garden seemed the wildest dream of all. Her +hard, narrow logic, constantly dinned into Edith's ears, discouraged +her, and she began to doubt herself. + +Mr. Crowl (timid lover) had in Edith's absence confirmed his previous +hints, thrown out to Mrs. Allen as feelers, by making a definite +proposition. In brief, he had offered to settle twenty-five thousand +dollars on Edith the day she married him, and to take care of the rest +of the family. + +"I have made enough," he said majestically, "to live the rest of my +life like a gentleman, and this offer is princely, if I say it myself. +You can all ride in your carriage again." Then he added, with his +little black eyes growing hard and cunning, "If your daughter won't +accept my generosity, our relationship becomes merely one of business. +Of course I shall foreclose. Money is scarce here, and I shall +probably be able to buy in the place at half its worth. Seems to me," +he concluded, looking at the case from his valuation of money, "there +is not much room for choice here." + +And Mr. Crowl had been princely--for him. Mrs. Allen thought so, too, +and lent herself to the scheme with all the persistent energy that she +could show in these matters. But, to do her justice, she really +thought she was doing what was best for Edith and all of them. She was +acting in accordance with her lifelong principle of providing for her +family, in the one way she believed in and understood. But sincerity +and singleness of purpose made her all the more dangerous as a +tempter. + +In one of Edith's most discouraged moods she broached the subject and +explained Mr. Crowl's offer, for he, prudent man, had left it to her. + +Edith started violently, and the project was so revolting to her that +she fled from the room. But Mrs. Allen, with her small pertinacity, +kept recurring to it at every opportunity. Though it may seem a little +strange, her mother's action did not so shock Edith as some might +expect; nor did the proposition seem so impossible as it might to some +girls. She had all her life been accustomed, through her mother, to +the idea of marrying for money, and we can get used to almost +anything. + +In March their money was very low. Going to Zell and taking care of +her had involved much additional expense. She found out that her +mother had already accepted and used in part a loan of fifty dollars +from Mr. Crowl. Laura, from the long confinement of the winter, and +from living on fare too coarse and lacking in nutrition for her +delicate organization, was growing very feeble. Zell seemed in the +first stages of consumption, and would soon be a sick, helpless +burden. The chill of dread grew stronger at Edith's heart. + +"Oh, can it be possible that I shall be driven to it!" she often +groaned; and she now saw, as poor Laura said, "the black hand in the +dark pushing her down." To her surprise her thoughts kept reverting to +Arden Lacey. + +"What will he think of me if I do this?" she thought, with intense +bitterness. "He will tell me I was not worthy of his friendship, much +less of his love--that I deceived him;" and the thought of Arden, +after all, perhaps, had the most weight in restraining her from the +fatal step. For then, to her perverted sense of duty, this marriage +began to seem like an heroic self-sacrifice. + +She had seen little of Arden since her return. He was kind and +respectful as ever, outwardly, but she saw in his deep blue eyes that +she was the divinity that he still worshipped with unfaltering +devotion, and as she once smiled at the idea of being set up as an +idol in his heart, she now began unspeakably to dread falling from her +pedestal. + +One dreary day, the last of March, when sleet and rain were pouring +steadily down, and Laura was sick in her bed, and Zell moping with her +hacking cough over the fire, with Hannibal in the kitchen, Mrs. Allen +turned suddenly to Edith, and said: + +"On some such day we shall all be turned into the street. You could +save us, you could save yourself, by taking a kind, rich man for your +lawful husband; but you won't." + +Then Satan, who is always on hand when we are weakest, quoted +Scripture to Edith as he had done once before. The words flashed into +her mind, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." + +In a wild moment of mingled enthusiasm and desperation, she sprang up +before her mother, and said: + +"If I can't pay the interest of the mortgage--if I can't take care of +you all by some kind of work, I will marry him. But if you have a +spark of love for me, save, economize, try to think of some other +way." + +Mrs. Allen smiled triumphantly, and tried in her gratitude to embrace +her daughter, saying: "A kind husband will soon lift all burdens off +your shoulders." The burden on the heart Mrs. Allen did not +understand, but Edith fled from her to her own room. + +In a little while her excitement and enthusiasm died away, and life +began to look gaunt and bare. Even her Saviour's face seemed hidden, +and she only saw an ugly spectre in the future--Simon Crowl. + +In vain she repeated to herself, "He sacrificed Himself for others--so +will I." The nature that He had given her revolted at it all, and +though she could not understand it, she began to find a jarring +discord between herself and all things. + +Mrs. Allen told Mr. Crowl of her success, and he looked upon things as +settled. He came to the house quite often, but did not stay long or +assume any familiarity with Edith. He was a wary old spider; and under +Mrs. Allen's hints, behaved and looked very respectably. He certainly +did the best he could not to appear hideous to Edith, and though she +was very cold, she compelled herself to treat him civilly. + +Perhaps many might have considered Edith's chance a very good one; but +with an almost desperate energy she set her mind at work to find some +other way out of her painful straits. Everything, however, seemed +against her. Mr. McTrump was sick with inflammatory rheumatism. Mrs. +Groody was away, and would not be back till the last of May. On +account of Arden she could not speak to Mrs. Lacey. She tried in vain +to get work, but at that season there was nothing in Pushton which she +could do. Farmers were beginning to get out a little on their wet +lands, and various out-of-door activities to revive after the winter +stagnation. Moreover, money was very scarce at that season of the +year. She at last turned to the garden as her only resource. She +realized that she had scarcely money enough to carry them through May. +Could she get returns from her garden in time? Could it be made to +yield enough to support them? With an almost desperate energy she +worked in it whenever the weather permitted through April, and kept +Hannibal at it also. Indeed, she had little mercy on the old man, and +he wondered at her. One day he ventured: + +"Miss Edie, you jes done kill us both," but his wonder increased as +she muttered: + +"Perhaps it would be the best thing for us both," Then, seeing his +panic-stricken face, she added more kindly, "Hannibal, our money is +getting low, and the garden is our only chance." + +After that he worked patiently without a word and without a thought of +sparing himself. + +Edith insisted on the closest economy in the house, though she was too +sensible to stint herself in food in view of her constant toil. But +one day she detected Mrs. Allen, with her small cunning and her +determination to carry her point, practicing a little wastefulness. +Edith turned on her with such fierceness that she never dared to +repeat the act. Indeed, Edith was becoming very much what she was +before Zell ran away, only in addition there was something akin, at +times, to Zell's own hardness and recklessness, and one day she said +to Edith: + +"What is the matter? You are becoming like me." + +Edith fled to her room, and sobbed and cried and tried to pray till +her strength was gone. The sweet trust and peace she had once enjoyed +seemed like a past dream. She was learning by bitter experience that +it can never be right to do wrong; and that a first false step, like a +false premise, leads to sad conclusions. + +She had insisted that her mother should not speak of the matter till +it became absolutely necessary, therefore Laura, Zell, and none of her +friends could understand her. + +Arden was the most puzzled and pained of all, for she shrank from him +with increasing dread. He was now back at his farm work, though he +said to Edith one day despondently that he had no heart to work, for +the mortgage on their place would probably be foreclosed in the fall. +She longed to tell him how she was situated, but she saw he was unable +to help her, and she dreaded to see the scorn come into his trusting, +loving eyes; she could not endure his absolute confidence in her, and +in his presence her heart ached as if it would break, so she shunned +him till he grew very unhappy, and sighed: + +"There's something wrong. She finds I am not congenial. I shall lose +her friendship," and his aching heart also admitted, as never before, +how dear it was to him. + +Nature was awakening with the rapture of another spring; birds were +coming back to old haunts with ecstatic songs; flowers budding into +their brief but exquisite life, and the trees aglow with fragrant +prophecies of fruit; but a winter of fear and doubt was chilling these +two hearts into something far worse than nature's seeming death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +SAVED + + + +Edith's efforts still to help Zell to better things were very +pathetic, considering how unhappy and tempted she was herself. She did +try, even when her own heart was breaking, to bring peace and hope to +the poor creature, but she was taught how vain her efforts were, in +her present mood, by Zell's saying, sharply: + +"Physician, heal thyself." + +Though Zell did not understand Edith, she saw that she was almost as +unhappy as herself, and she had lost hope in everybody and everything. +Though she had not admitted it, Edith's words and kindness at first +had excited her wonder, and, perhaps, a faint glimmer of hope; but, as +she saw her sister's face cloud with care, and darken with pain and +fear, she said, bitterly: + +"Why did she talk with me so? It was all a delusion. What is God doing +for her any more than for me?" + +But, in order to give Zell occupation, and something to think about +besides herself, Edith had induced her to take charge of the flowers +in the garden. + +"They won't grow for me," Zell had said at first. "They will wither +when I look at them, and white blossoms will turn black as I bend over +them." + +"Nonsense!" said Edith, with irritation; "won't you do anything to +help me?" + +"Oh, certainly," wearily answered Zell. "I will do the work just as +you tell me. If they do die, it don't matter. We can eat or sell +them." So Zell began to take care of the flowers, doing the work in a +stealthy manner, and hiding when any one came. + +The month of May was unusually warm, and Edith was glad, for it would +hasten things forward. That upon which she now bent almost agonized +effort and thought was the possibility of paying the interest on the +mortgage by the middle of June, when it was due. All hope concentrated +on her strawberries, as they would be the first crop worth mentioning +that she could depend on from her place. She gave the plants the most +careful attention. Not a weed was suffered to grow, and between the +rows she placed carefully, with her own hands, leaves she raked up in +the orchard, so that the ground might be kept moist and the fruit +clean. Almost every hour of the day her eyes sought the strawberry-bed, as the source of her hope. If that failed her, no bleeding human +sacrifice in all the cruel past could surpass in agony her fate. + +The vines began to blossom with great promise, and at first she almost +counted them in her eager expectation. Then the long rows looked like +little banks of snow, and she exulted over the prospect. Laura was +once about to pick one of the blossoms, but she stopped her almost +fiercely. She would get up in the night, and stand gazing at the lines +of white, as she could trace them in the darkness across the garden. +So the days passed on till the last of May, and the blossoms grew +scattering, but there were multitudes of little green berries, from +the size of a pea to that of her thimble, and some of them began to +have a white look. She so minutely watched them develop that she could +have almost defined the progress day by day. Once Zell looked at her +wonderingly, and said: + +"Edith, you are crazy over that strawberry-bed. I believe you worship +it." + +For a time Edith's hopes daily rose higher as the vines gave finer +promise, but during the last week of May a new and terrible source of +danger revealed itself, a danger that she knew not how to cope with--drought. + +It had not rained since the middle of May. She saw that many of her +young and tender vegetables were wilting, but the strawberries, +mulched with leaves, did not appear to mind it at first. Still she +knew they would suffer soon, unless there was rain. Most anxiously she +watched the skies. Their serenity mocked her when she was so clouded +with care. Wild storms would be better than these balmy, sunny days. + +The first of June came, the second, third, and fourth, and here and +there a berry was turning red, but the vines were beginning to wilt. +The suspense became so great she could hardly endure it. Her faith in +God began to waver. Every breath almost was a prayer for rain, but the +sunny days passed like mocking smiles. + +"Is there a God?" she queried desperately. "Can I have been deceived +in all my past happy experience?" She shuddered at the answer that the +tempter suggested, and yet, like a drowning man, she still clung to +her faith. + +During the long evening, she and Hannibal sought to save the bed by +carrying water from the well, but they could do so little, it only +seemed to show them how utterly dependent they were on the natural +rain from heaven; but the skies seemed laughing at her pain and fear. +Moreover, she noticed that those they watered appeared injured rather +than helped, as is ever the case where it is insufficiently done, and +she saw that she must helplessly wait. + +Arden Lacey had been away for a week, and, returning in the dusk of +the evening, saw her at work watering, before she had come to this +conclusion. His heart was hungry, even for the sight of her, and he +longed for her to let him stop for a little chat as of old. So he +said, timidly: + +"Good-evening, Miss Allen, haven't you a word to welcome me back +with?" + +"Oh!" cried Edith, not heeding his salutation, "why don't it rain! I +shall lose all my strawberries." + +His voice jarred upon her heart, now too full, and she ran into the +house to hide her feelings, and left him. Even the thought of him now, +in her morbid state, began to pierce her like a sword. + +"She thinks more of her paltry strawberry-bed than of me," muttered +Arden, and he stalked angrily homeward. "What is the matter with Miss +Allen?" he asked his mother abruptly. "I don't understand her." + +"Nor I either," said Mrs. Lacey with a sigh. + +The next morning was very warm, and Edith saw that the day would be +hotter than any that preceded. A dry wind sprang up and it seemed +worse than the sun. The vines began to wither early after the coolness +of the night, and those she had watered suffered the most, and seemed +to say to her mockingly: + +"You can't do anything." + +"Oh, heaven!" cried Edith, almost in despair, "there is a black hand +pushing me down." + +In an excited, feverish manner she roamed restlessly around and could +settle down to nothing. She scanned the horizon for a cloud, as the +shipwrecked might for a sail. + +"Edie, what is the matter?" said Laura, putting her arms about her +sister. + +"It won't rain," said Edith, bursting into tears. "My home, my +happiness, everything depends on rain, and look at these skies." + +"But won't He send it?" asked Laura, gently. + +"Why don't He, then?" said Edith, almost in irritation. Then, in a +sudden passion of grief, she hid her face in her sister's lap, and +sobbed, "Oh, Laura, Laura, I feel I am losing my faith in Him. Why +does He treat me so?" + +Here Laura's face grew troubled and fearful also. Her faith in Christ +was so blended with her faith in Edith that she could not separate +them in a moment. "I don't understand it, Edie," she faltered. "He +seems to have taken care of me, and has been very kind since that--that night But I don't understand your feeling so." + +"Oh, oh, oh!" sobbed Edith, "I don't know what to think--what to +believe; and I fear I shall hurt your faith," and she shut herself up +in her room, and looked despairingly out to where the vines were +drooping in the fierce heat. + +"If they don't get help to-day, my hopes will wither like their +leaves," she said, with pallid lips. As the sun declined in the west, +she went out and stood beside them, as one might by a dying friend. +Her fresh young face seemed almost growing aged and wrinkled under the +ordeal. She had prayed that afternoon, as never before in her life, +for help, and now, with a despairing gesture upward, she said: + +"Look at that brazen sky!" + +But the noise of the opening gate caused her to look thither, and +there was Arden entering, with a great barrel on wheels, which was +drawn by a horse. His heart, so weak toward her, had relented during +the day. "I vowed to serve her, and I will," he thought. "I will be +her slave, if she will permit." + +Edith did not understand at first, and he came toward her so humbly, +as if to ask a great favor, that it would have been comic, had not his +sincerity made it pathetic. + +"Miss Allen," he said, "I saw you trying to water your berries. +Perhaps I can do it better, as I have here the means of working on a +larger scale." + +Edith seized his hand and said, with tears: "You are like an angel of +light; how can I thank you enough?" + +Her manner puzzled him to-night quite as much as on the previous +occasion. "Why does she act as if her life depended on these few +berries?" he vainly asked himself. "They can't be so poor as to be in +utter want. I wish she would speak frankly to me." + +In her case, as in thousands of others, it would have been so much +better if she had. + +Then Edith said, a little dubiously, "I hurt the vines when I tried to +water them." + +"I know enough about gardening to understand that," said Arden, with a +smile. "If the ground is not thoroughly soaked it does hurt them. But +see," and he poured the water around the vines till the dry leaves +swam in it. "That will last two days, and then I will water these +again. I can go over half the bed thoroughly one night, and the other +half the next night; and so we will keep them along till rain comes." + +She looked at him as if he were a messenger come to release her from a +dungeon, and murmured, in a low, sweet voice: + +"Mr. Lacey, you are as kind as a brother to me." + +A warm flush of pleasure mantled his face and neck, and he turned away +to hide his feelings, but said: + +"Miss Edith, this is nothing to what I would do for you." + +She had it on her lips to tell him how she was situated, but he +hastened away to fill his barrel at a neighboring pond. She watched +him go to and fro in his rough, working garb, and he seemed to her the +very flower of chivalry. + +Her eyes grew lustrous with admiration, gratitude, hope, and--yes, +love, for before the June twilight deepened into night it was revealed +in the depths of her heart that she loved Arden Lacey, and that was +the reason that she had kept away from him since she had made the +hateful promise. She had thought it only friendship, now she knew that +it was love, and that his scorn and anger would be the bitterest +ingredient of all in her self-immolation. + +For two long hours he went to and fro unweariedly, and then startled +her by saying in the distance on his way home, "I will come again to-morrow evening," and was gone. He was afraid of himself, lest in his +strong feeling he might break his implied promise not even to suggest +his love, when she came to thank him, and so, in self-distrustfulness, +he was beginning to shun her also. + +An unspeakable burden of fear was lifted from her heart, and hope, +sweet, warm, and rosy, kept her eyes waking, but rested her more than +sleep. In the morning she saw that the watering had greatly revived +one half of the bed, and that all through the hot day they did not +wilt, while the unwatered part looked very sick. + +Old Crowl also had seen the proceeding in the June twilight, and did +not like it. "I must put a spoke in his wheel," he said. So the next +afternoon he met Arden in the village, and blustered up to him, +saying: + +"Look here, young Lacey, what were you doing at the Allens' last +night?" + +"None of your business." + +"Yes, it is my business, too, as you may find out to your cost. I am +engaged to marry Miss Edith Allen, and guess it's my business who's +hanging around there. I warn you to keep away." Mr. Crowl had put the +case truly, and yet with characteristic cunning. He was positively +engaged to Edith, though she was only conditionally engaged to him. + +"It's an accursed lie," thundered Arden, livid with rage, "and I warn +you to leave--you make me dangerous." + +"Oh, ho; touches you close, does it? I am sorry for you, but it's +true, nevertheless." + +Arden looked as if he would rend him, but by a great effort he +controlled himself, and in a low, meaning voice said: + +"If you have lied to me this afternoon, woe be unto you," and he +turned on his heel and walked straight to Edith, where she stood at +work among her grapevines, breaking off some of the too thickly +budding branches. He was beside her before she heard him, and the +moment she looked into his white, stern face, she saw that something +had happened. + +"Miss Allen," he said, abruptly, "I heard a report about you this +afternoon. I did not believe it; I could not; but it came so direct, +that I give you a chance to refute it. Your word will be sufficient +for me. It would be against all the world. Is there anything between +you and Simon Crowl?" + +Her confusion was painful, and for a moment she could not speak, but +stood trembling before him. + +In his passion, he seized her roughly by the arm and said, hoarsely, +"In a word, yes or no?" + +His manner offended her proud spirit, and she looked him angrily in +the face and said, haughtily; + +"Yes." + +He recoiled from her as if he had been stung. + +Her anger died away in a moment, and she leaned against the grape-trellis for support. + +"Do you love him?" he faltered, his bronzed cheek blanching. + +"No," she gasped. + +The blood rushed furiously into his face, and he took an angry stride +toward her. She cowered before him, but almost wished that he would +strike her dead. In a voice hoarse with rage, he said: + +"This, then, is the end of our friendship. This is the best that your +religion has taught you. If not your pitiful faith, then has not your +woman's nature told you that neither priest nor book can marry you to +that coarse lump of earth?" and he turned on his heel and strode away. + +His mother was frightened as she saw his face. "What has happened?" +she said, starting up. He stared at her almost stupidly for a moment. +Then he said, in a stony voice: + +"The worst that ever can happen to me in this or any world. If the +lightning had burned me to a cinder, I could not be more utterly +bereft of all that tends to make a good man. Edith Allen has sold +herself to old Crowl. Some priest is going through a farce they will +call a marriage, and all the good people will say, 'How well she has +done!' What a miserable delusion this religious business is! You had +better give it up, mother, as I do, here and now." + +"Hush, my son," said Mrs. Lacey, solemnly. "You have only seen Edith +Allen. I have seen _Jesus Christ._ + +"There is some mystery about this," she added, after a moment's +painful thought. "I will go and see her at once." + +He seized her hand, saying: + +"Have I not been a good son to you?" + +"Yes, Arden." + +"Then by all I have ever been to you, and as you wish my love to +continue, go not near her again." + +"But, Arden--" + +"Promise me," he said, sternly. + +"Well," said the poor woman, with a deep sigh, "not without your +permission." + +From that time forth, Arden seemed as if made of stone. + +After he was gone Edith walked with uncertain steps to the little +arbor, and sat down as if stunned. She lost all idea of time. After it +was dark, Hannibal called her in, and made her take a cup of tea. She +then went mechanically to her room, but not to sleep. Arden's dreadful +words kept repeating themselves over and over again. + +"O God!" she exclaimed, in the darkness, "whither am I drifting? Must +I be driven to this awful fate in order to provide for those dependent +upon me? Cannot bountiful Nature feed us? Wilt Thou not, in mercy, +send one drop of rain? O Jesus, where is Thy mercy?" + +The next morning the skies were still cloudless, and she scowled +darkly at the sunny dawn. Then, in sudden alternation of mood, she +stretched her bare, white arms toward the little farmhouse, and +sighed, in tones of tremulous pathos: + +"Oh, Arden, Arden! I would rather die at your feet than live in a +palace with him." + +She sent down word that she was ill, and that she would not come down. +Laura, Mrs. Allen, and even Zell, came to her, but she kissed them +wearily, and sent them away. She saw that there was deep anxiety on +all their faces. Pretty soon Hannibal came up with a cup of coffee. + +"You must drink it, Miss Edie," he said, "'cause we'se all a-leanin' +on you." + +Well-meaning words, but tending unconsciously to confirm her desperate +purpose to sacrifice herself for them. + +She lay with her face buried in the pillow all day. She knew that +their money was almost gone, that provisions were scanty in the house, +and to her morbid mind bags of gold were piled up before her, and +Simon Crowl, as an ugly spectre, was beckoning her toward them. + +As she lay in a dull lethargy of pain in the afternoon, a heavy jar of +thunder aroused her. She sprang up instantly, and ran out bare-headed +to the little rise of ground behind the house, and there, in the west, +was a great black cloud. The darker and nearer it grew, the more her +face brightened. It was a strange thing to see that fair young girl +looking toward the threatening storm with eager, glad expectancy, as +if it were her lover. The heavy and continued roll of the thunder, +like the approaching roar of battle, was sweeter to her than love's +whispers. She saw with dilating eyes the trees on the distant +mountain's brow toss and writhe in the tempest; she heard the fall of +rain-drops on the foliage of the mountain's side as if they were the +feet of an army coming to her rescue. A few large ones, mingled with +hail, fell around her like scattering shots, and she put out her hands +to catch them. The fierce gusts caught up her loosened hair and it +streamed away behind her. There was a blinding flash, and the branches +of a tall locust near came quivering down--she only smiled. + +But dismay and trembling fear overwhelmed her as the shower passed on +to the north. She could see it raining hard a mile away, but the drops +ceased to fall around her. The deep reverberations rolled away in the +distance, and in the west there was a long line of light. As the +twilight deepened, the whole storm was below the horizon, only sending +up angry flashes as it thundered on to parts unknown. With clasped +hands and despairing eyes, Edith gazed after it, as the wrecked +floating on a raft might watch a ship sail away, and leave them to +perish on the wide ocean. + +She walked slowly down to the little arbor, and leaned wearily back on +the rustic seat. She saw night come on in breathless peace. Not a leaf +stirred. She saw the moon rise over the eastern hills, as brightly and +serenely as if its rays would not fall on one sad face. + +Hannibal called, but she did not answer, Then he came out to her, and +put the cup of tea to her lips, and made her drink it. She obeyed +mechanically. + +"Poor chile, poor chile," he murmured, "I wish ole Hannibal could die +for you." + +She lifted her face to him with such an expression that he hastened +away to hide his tears. But she sat still, as if in a dream, and yet +she felt that the crisis had come, and that before she left that place +she must come to some decision. Reason would be dethroned if she lived +much longer in such suspense and irresolution. And yet she sat still +in a dreamy stupor, the reaction of her strong excitement. It seemed, +in a certain sense, peaceful and painless, and she did not wish to +goad herself out of it. + +"It may be like the last sleep before execution," she thought, +"therefore make the most of it," and her thoughts wandered at will. + +A late robin came flying home to the arbor where the nest was, and +having twittered out a little vesper-song, put its head under its +wing, near his mate, which sat brooding in the nest over some little +eggs, and the thought stole into her heart, "Will God take care of +them and not me?" and she watched the peaceful sleep of the family +over her head as if it were an emblem of faith. + +Then a sudden breeze swept a spray of roses against her face, and +their delicate perfume was like the "still small voice" of love, and +the thought passed dreamily across Edith's mind, "Will God do so much +for that little cluster of roses and yet do nothing for me?" + +How near the Father was to His child! In this calm that followed her +long passionate struggle, His mighty but gentle Spirit could make +itself felt, and it stole into the poor girl's bruised heart with +heavenly suggestion and healing power. The happy days when she +followed Jesus and sat daily at His feet were recalled. Her sin was +shown to her, not in anger, but in the loving reproachfulness of the +Saviour's look upon faithless Peter, and a voice seemed to ask in her +soul, "How could you turn away your trust from Him to anything else? +How could you think it right to do so great a wrong? How could you so +trample upon the womanly nature that He gave you as to think of +marrying where neither love nor God would sanction?" + +Jesus seemed to stand before her, and point up to the robins, saying, +"I feed them. I fed the five thousand. I feed the world. I can feed +you and yours. Trust me. Do right. In trying to save yourself you will +destroy yourself." + +With a divine impulse, she threw herself on the floor of the arbor, +and cried: + +"Jesus, I cast myself at Thy feet. I throw myself on Thy mercy. When I +look the world around, away from Thee, I see only fear and torment. If +I die, I will perish at Thy feet." + +Was it the moonlight only that made the night luminous? No, for the +glory of the Lord shone around, and the peace that "passeth all +understanding" came flowing into her soul like a shining river. The +ugly phantoms that had haunted her vanished. The "black hand that +seemed pushing her down," became her Father's hand, shielding and +sustaining. + +She rose as calm and serene as the summer evening and went straight to +Mrs. Allen's room and said: "Mother, I will never marry Simon Crowl." + +Her mother began to cry, and say piteously: + +"Then we shall all be turned into the street." + +"What the future will be I can't tell," said Edith, gently but firmly. +"I will work for you, I will beg for you, I will starve with you, but +I will never marry Simon Crowl, nor any other man that I do not love." +And pressing a kiss on her mother's face, she went to her room, and +soon was lost in the first refreshing sleep that she had had for a +long time. + +She was wakened toward morning by the sound of rain, and, starting up, +heard its steady, copious downfall. In a sudden ecstasy of gratitude +she sprang up, opened the blinds and looked out. The moon had gone +down, and through the darkness the rain was falling heavily; she felt +it upon her forehead, her bare neck and arms, and it seemed to her +Heaven's own baptism into a new and stronger faith and a happier life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +CLOSING SCENES + + + +The clouds were clearing away when Edith came down late the next +morning, and all saw that the clouds had passed from her brow. + +"Bress de Lord, Miss Edie, you'se yoursef again!" said Hannibal, +joyfully. "I neber see a shower do such a heap ob good afore." + +"No," said Edith, sadly; "I was myself. I lost my Divine Friend and +Helper, and I then became myself--poor, weak, faulty Edith Allen. But, +thanks to His mercy, I have found Him again, and so hope to be the +better self that He helped me to be before." + +Zell looked at her with a sudden wonder, and went out and stayed among +her flowers all day. + +Laura came and put her arms around her neck, and said, + +"Oh, Edie, I am so glad! What you said set me to fearing and doubting; +but I am sure we can trust Him." + +Mrs. Allen sighed drearily, and said, "I don't understand it at all." + +But old Hannibal slapped his hands in true Methodist style, +exclaiming, "Dat's it! Trow away de ole heart! Get a new one! Bress de +Lord!" + +Edith went out into the garden, and saw that there were a great many +berries ripe; then she hastened to the hotel, and said: + +"Oh, Mrs. Groody, for Heaven's sake, won't you help me sell my +strawberries up here?" + +"Yes, my dear," was the hearty response; "both for your sake and the +strawberries, too. We get them from the city, and would much rather +have fresh country ones." + +Edith returned with her heart thrilling with hope, and set to work +picking as if every berry was a ruby, and in a few hours she had six +quarts of fragrant fruit. Malcom had lent her little baskets, and +Hannibal took them up to the hotel, for Arden would not even look +toward the little cottage any more. The old servant came back grinning +with delight, and gave Edith a dollar and a half. + +The next day ten quarts brought two dollars and a half. Then they +began to ripen rapidly, the rain having greatly improved them, and +Edith, with considerable help from the others, picked twenty, thirty, +and fifty quarts a day. She employed a stout boy from the village, to +help her, and, through him, she soon had quite a village trade also. +He had a percentage on the sales, and, therefore, was very sharp in +disposing of them. + +How Edith gloated over her money! how, with more than miserly eyes, +she counted it over every night, and pressed it to her lips! + +In the complete absorption of the past few weeks Edith had not noticed +the change going on in Zell. The poor creature was surprised and +greatly pleased that the flowers grew so well for her. Every opening +blossom was a new revelation, and their sweet perfume stole into her +wounded heart like balm. The blue violets seemed like children's eyes +peeping timidly at her; and the pansies looked so bright and saucy +that she caught herself smiling back at them. The little black and +brown seeds she planted came up so promptly that it seemed as if they +wanted to see her as much as she did them. + +"Isn't it queer," she said one day to herself, "that such pretty +things can come out of such ugly little things." Nothing in nature +seemed to turn away from her, any more than would nature's God. The +dumb life around began to speak to her in many and varied voices, and +she who fled from companionship with her own kind would sit and chirp +and talk to the birds, as if they understood her. And they did seem to +grow strangely familiar, and would almost eat crumbs out of her hand. + +One day in June she said to Hannibal, who was working near, "Isn't it +strange the flowers grow so well for me?" + +"Why shouldn't dey grow for you, Miss Zell?" asked he, straightening +his old back up. + +"Good, innocent Hannibal, how indeed should you know anything about +it?" + +"Yes, I does know all 'bout it," said he, earnestly, and he came to +her where she stood by a rosebush. "Does you see dis white rose?" + +"Yes," said Zell, "it opened this morning. I've been watching it." + +Poor Hannibal could not read print, but he seemed to understand this +exquisite passage in nature's open book, for he put his black finger +on the rose (which made it look whiter than before), and commenced +expounding it as a preacher might his text. "Now look at it sharp, +Miss Zell, 'cause it'll show you I does know all 'bout it. It's white, +isn't it?" + +"Yes," said Zell, eagerly, for Hannibal held the attention of his +audience. + +"Dat means pure, doesn't it?" continued he. + +"Yes," said Zell, looking sadly down. + +"And it's sweet, isn't it? Now dat means lub." + +And Zell looked hopefully up. + +"And now, dear chile," said he, giving her a little impressive nudge, +"see whar de white rose come from--right up out of de brack, ugly +ground." + +Having concluded his argument and made his point, the simple orator +began his application, and Zell was leaning toward him in her +interest. + +"De good Lord, he make it grow to show what He can do for us. Miss +Zell," he said, in an awed whisper, "my ole heart was as brack as dat +ground, but de blessed Jesus turn it as white as dis rose. Miss Edie, +Lor' bless her, telled me 'bout Him, and I'se found it all true. Now, +doesn't I know 'bout it? I knows dat de good Jesus can turn de +brackest heart in de world jes like dis rose, make it white and pure, +and fill it up wid de sweetness of lub. I knows all 'bout it." + +He spoke with the power of absolute certainty and strong feeling, +therefore his hearer was deeply moved. + +"Hannibal," she said, coming close to him, and putting her hand on his +shoulder, "do you think Jesus could turn my heart white?" + +"Sartin, Miss Zell," answered he, stoutly. "Jes as easy as He make dis +white rose grow." + +"Would you mind asking Him? It seems to me I would rather pray out +here among the flowers," she said, in low, tremulous tones. + +So Hannibal concluded his simple, but most effective, service by +kneeling down by his pulpit, the rosebush, and praying: + +"Bressed Jesus, guv dis dear chile a new heart, 'cause she wants it, +and you wants her to hab it. Make it pure and full of lub. You can do +it, dear Jesus. You knows you can. Now, jes please do it. +_Amen_." + +Zell's responsive "Amen" was like a note from an AEolian harp. + +"Hannibal," said she, looking wistfully at him, "I think I feel +better. I think I feel it growing white." + +"Now jes look here, Miss Zell," said he, giving her a bit of pastoral +counsel before going back to his work, "don't you keep lookin' at your +heart, and seein' how it feels, or you'll get discouraged. See dis +rose agin? It don't look at itself. It jes looks up at de sun. So you +look straight at Jesus, and your heart grow whiter ebery day." + +And Hannibal and the flower did gradually lead poor Zell to Him who +"taketh away the sins of the world," and He said to her as to one of +old, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." + +On the evening of the 14th of June, Edith had more than enough to pay +the interest due on the 15th, and she was most anxious to have it +settled. She was standing at the gate waiting for Hannibal to join her +as escort, when she saw Arden Lacey coming toward her. He had not +looked at her since that dreadful afternoon, and was now about to pass +her without notice, though from his manner she saw he was conscious of +her presence. He looked so worn and changed that her heart yearned +toward him. A sudden thought occurred to her, and she said: + +"Mr. Lacey." + +He kept right on, and paid no heed to her. + +There was a mingling of indignation and pathos in her voice when she +spoke again. + +"I appeal to you as a woman, and no matter what I am, if you are a +true man, you will listen." + +There was that in her tone and manner that reminded him of the dark +rainy night when they first met. + +He turned instantly, but he approached her with a cold, silent bow. + +"I must go to the village to-night. I wish your protection," she said, +in a voice she tried vainly to render steady. + +He again bowed silently, and they walked to the village together +without a word. Hannibal came out in time to see them disappear down +the road, one on one side of it, and one on the other. + +"Well now, dey's both quar," he said, scratching his white head with +perplexity, "but one ting is mighty sartin, I'se glad my ole jints is +saved dat tramp." + +Edith stopped at the door of Mr. Crowl's office, and Arden, for the +first time, spoke hastily: + +"I can't go in there." + +"I hope you are not afraid," said Edith, in a tone that made him step +forward quick enough. + +Mr. Crowl looked as if he could not believe his eyes, but Edith gave +him no time to collect his wits, but by the following little speech +quite overwhelmed both him and Arden, though with different emotions. + +"There, sir, is the interest due on the mortgage. There is a slight +explanation due you and also this gentleman here, who _was_ my friend. +There are four persons in our family dependent on me for support and +shelter. We were all so poor and helpless that it seemed impossible to +maintain ourselves in independence. You make a proposition through my +mother, never to me, that might be called generous if it had not been +coupled with certain threats of prompt foreclosure if not accepted. In +an hour of weakness and for the sake of the others, I said to my +mother, never to you, that if I could not pay the interest and could +not support the family, I would marry you. But I did very wrong, and I +became so unhappy and desperate in view of this partial promise, that +I thought I should lose my reason. But in the hour of my greatest +darkness, when I saw no way out of our difficulties, I was led to see +how wrongly I had acted, and to resolve that under no possible +circumstances would I marry you, nor any man to whom I could not give +a true wife's love. Since that time I have been able honestly to earn +the money there; and in a few days more I will pay you the fifty +dollars that my mother borrowed of you. So please give me my receipt." + +"And remember henceforth," said Arden, sternly, "that this lady has a +protector." + +Simon was sharp enough to see that he was beaten, so he signed the +receipt and gave it to Edith without a word. They left his office and +started homeward. When out of the village Arden said timidly: + +"Can you forgive me, Miss Edith?" + +"Can you forgive me?" answered she, even more humbly. + +They stopped in the road and grasped each other's hands with a warmth +more expressive than all words. Then they went on silently again. At +the gate Edith said timidly: + +"Won't you come in?" + +"I dare not, Miss Allen," said Arden, gravely, and with a dash of +bitterness in his voice "I am a man of honor with all my faults, and I +would keep the promise I made you in the letter I wrote one year ago. +I must see very little of you," he continued, in a very heartsick +tone, "but let me serve you just the same." + +Edith's face seemed to possess more than human loveliness as it grew +tender and gentle in the radiance of the full moon, and he looked at +it with the hunger of a famished heart. + +"But you made the promise to me, did you not?" she asked in a low +tone. + +"Certainly," said Arden. + +"Then it seems to me that I have the right to absolve you from the +promise," she continued in a still lower tone, and a face like a +damask-rose in moonlight. + +"Miss Allen--Edith--" said Arden, "oh, for Heaven's sake, be kind. +Don't trifle with me." + +Edith had restrained her feelings so long that she was ready to either +laugh or cry, so with a peal of laughter, that rang out like a chime +of silver bells, she said: + +"Like the fat abbot in the story, I give you full absolution and +plenary indulgence." + +He seized her hand and carried it to his lips: "Edith," he pleaded, in +a low, tremulous voice, "will you let me be your slave?" + +"Not a bit of it," said she, sturdily. She added, looking shyly up at +him, "What should I do with a slave?" + +Arden was about to kneel at her feet, but she said: + +"Nonsense! If you must get on your knees, come and kneel to my +strawberry-bed--you ought to thank that, I can tell you." And so the +matter-of-fact girl, who could not abide sentiment, got through a +scene that she greatly dreaded. + +They could see the berries reddening among the green leaves, and the +night wind blowing across them was like a gale from Araby the Blest. + +"Were it not for this strawberry-bed you would not have obtained +absolution to-night. But, Arden," she added, seriously, "here is your +way out of trouble, as well as mine. We are near good markets. Give up +your poor, slipshod farming (I'm plain, you see) and raise fruit. I +will supply you with vines. We will go into partnership. You show what +a man can do, and I will show what a girl can do." + +He took her hand and looked at her so fondly that she hid her face on +his shoulder. He stroked her head and said, in a half-mirthful tone: + +"Ah, Edie, Edie, woman once got man out of a garden, but you, I +perceive, are destined to lead me into one; and any garden where you +are will be Eden to me." + +She looked up, with her face suddenly becoming grave and wistful, and +said: + +"Arden, God will walk in my garden in the cool of the day. You won't +hide from Him, will you?" + +"No," he answered, earnestly. "I now feel sure that, through my faith +in you, I shall learn to have faith in Him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +LAST WORDS + + + +Edith did sustain the family on the products of her little place. And, +more than that, the yield from her vines and orchard was so abundant +that she aided Arden to meet the interest of the mortgage on the Lacey +place, so that Mr. Crowl could not foreclose that autumn, as he +intended. She so woke her dreamy lover up that he soon became a keen, +masterful man of business, and, at her suggestion, at once commenced +the culture of small fruits, she giving him a good start from her own +place. + +Rose took the situation of nurse with Judge Clifford's married +daughter, having the care of two little children. She thus secured a +pleasant, sheltered home, where she was treated with great kindness. +Instead of running in debt, as in New York, she was able to save the +greater part of her wages, and in two years had enough ahead to take +time to learn the dressmakers' trade thoroughly, for which she had a +taste. But a sensible young mechanic, who had long been attentive, at +last persuaded her to make him a happy home. + +Mrs. Lacey's prayers were effectual in the case of her husband, for, +to the astonishment of the whole neighborhood, he reformed. Laura +remained a pale home-blossom, sheltered by Edith's love. + +With the blossoms she loved, Zell faded away in the autumn, but her +death was like that of the flowers, in the full hope of the glad +springtime of a new life. As her eyes closed and she breathed her last +sigh out on Edith's bosom, old Hannibal sobbed-- + +"She's--a white rose--now--sure 'nuff." + +Arden and Edith were married the following year, on the 14th of June, +the anniversary of their engagement. Edith greatly shocked Mrs. Allen +by having the ceremony performed in the garden. + +"Why not?" she said. "God once married a couple there." + +Mrs. Groody, Mr. and Mrs. McTrump, Mrs. Ranger, Mrs. Hart and her +daughters, and quite a number of other friends were present. + +Hannibal stood by the white rosebush, that was again in bloom, and +tears of joy, mingling with those of sorrow, bedewed the sweet +flowers. + +And Malcom stood up, after the ceremony, and said, with a certain +dignity that for a moment hushed and impressed all present: + +"Tho' I'm a little mon, I sometimes ha' great tho'ts, an' I have +learned to ken fra my gudewife there, an' this sweet blossom o' the +Lord's, that woman can bring a' the wourld to God if she will. That's +what she can do." + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of What Can She Do?, by E. P. Roe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT CAN SHE DO? *** + +***** This file should be named 6090.txt or 6090.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/9/6090/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/6090.zip b/6090.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8de946c --- /dev/null +++ b/6090.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d77398c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #6090 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6090) diff --git a/old/whtcn10.txt b/old/whtcn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4afdad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtcn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14617 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of What Can She Do?, by Edward Pason Roe +(#9 in our series by Edward Pason Roe) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: What Can She Do? + +Author: Edward Pason Roe + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6090] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 4, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WHAT CAN SHE DO? *** + + + + +Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +The Works of E. P. Roe + +VOLUME TEN + +WHAT CAN SHE DO? + +ILLUSTRATED + + + + + +DEDICATION + + IF I WERE + TO DEDICATE THIS + BOOK IT WOULD BE TO THOSE + GIRLS WHO RESOLVE THAT THEY WILL NOT +PLAY THE POOR ROLE OF MICAWBER, THEIR ONLY CHANCE FOR + LIFE BEING THAT SOME ONE WILL "TURN UP" + WHOM THEY MAY BURDEN WITH + THEIR HELPLESS + WEIGHT + + + + +PREFACE + + + +This book was not written to amuse, to create purposeless excitement, +or to secure a little praise as a bit of artistic work. It would +probably fail in all these things. It was written with a definite, +earnest purpose, which I trust will be apparent to the reader. + +As society in our land grows older, and departs from primitive +simplicity, as many are becoming rich, but more poor, the changes that +I have sought to warn against become more threatening. The ordinary +avenues of industry are growing thronged, and it daily involves a more +fearful risk for a woman to be thrown out upon the world with +unskilled hands, an untrained mind, and an unbraced moral nature. +Impressed with this danger by some considerable observation, by a +multitude of facts that might wring tears from stony eyes, I have +tried to write earnestly if not wisely. + +Of necessity, it touches somewhat on a subject delicate and difficult +to treat--the "skeleton in the closet" of society. But the evil exists +on every side, and at some time or other threatens every home and +life. It is my belief that Christian teachers should not timidly or +loftily ignore it, for, mark it well, the evil does not let us or ours +alone. It is my belief that it should be dealt with in a plain, +fearless, manly manner. Those who differ with me have a right to their +opinion. + +There is one other thought that I wish to suggest. Much of the fiction +of our day, otherwise strong and admirable, is discouraging in this +respect. In the delineation of character, some are good, some are bad, +and some indifferent. We have a lovely heroine, a noble hero, +developing seemingly in harmony with the inevitable laws of their +natures. Associated with them are those of the commoner or baser sort, +also developing in accordance with the innate principles of their +natures. The first are presented as if created of finer clay than the +others. The first are the flowers in the garden of society, the latter +the weeds. According to this theory of character, the heroine must +grow as a moss-rose and the weed remain a weed. Credit is not due to +one; blame should not be visited on the other. Is this true? Is not +the choice between good and evil placed before every human soul, save +where ignorance and mental feebleness destroy free agency? In the +field of the world which the angels of God are to reap, is it not even +possible for the tares to become wheat? And cannot the sweetest and +most beautiful natural flowers of character borrow from the skies a +fragrance and bloom not of earth? So God's inspired Word teaches me. + +I have turned away from many an exquisite and artistic delineation of +human life, sighing, God might as well never have spoken words of +hope, warning, and strength for all there is in this book. The Divine +and human Friend might have remained in the Heavens, and never come to +earth in human guise, that He might press His great heart of world- +wide sympathy against the burdened, suffering heart of humanity. He +need not have died to open a way of life for all. There is nothing +here but human motive, human strength, and earthly destiny. We protest +against this narrowing down of life, though it be done with the +faultless skill and taste of the most cultured genius. The children of +men are not orphaned. Our Creator is still "Emmanuel--God with us." +Earthly existence is but the prelude of our life, and even from this +the Divine artist can take much of the discord, and give an earnest of +the eternal harmonies. + +We all are honored with the privilege of "co-working with Him." + +If I in my little sphere can by this book lead one father to train his +children to be more strong and self-reliant, one mother to teach her +daughters a purer, more patient, more heroic womanhood--if I have +placed one more barrier in the tempter's way, and inspired one more +wholesome fear and principle in the heart of the tempted--if, by +lifting the dark curtain a moment, I can reveal enough to keep one +country girl from leaving her safe native village for unprotected life +in some great city--if I can add one iota toward a public opinion that +will honor useful labor, however humble, and condemn and render +disgraceful idleness and helplessness, however gilded--if, chief of +all, I lead one heavy-laden heart to the only source of rest, I shall +be well rewarded, whatever is said of this volume. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + +CHAPTER I +THREE GIRLS + +CHAPTER II +A FUTURE OP HUMAN DESIGNING + +CHAPTER III +THREE MEN + +CHAPTER IV +THE SKIES DARKENING + +CHAPTER V +THE STORM THREATENING + +CHAPTER VI +THE WRECK + +CHAPTER VII +AMONG THE BREAKERS + +CHAPTER VIII +WARPED + +CHAPTER IX +A DESERT ISLAND + +CHAPTER X +EDITH BECOMES A "DIVINITY" + +CHAPTER XI +MRS. ALLEN'S POLICY + +CHAPTER XII +WAITING FOR SOME ONE TO TURN UP + +CHAPTER XIII +THEY TURN UP + +CHAPTER XIV +WE CAN'T WORK + +CHAPTER XV +THE TEMPTATION + +CHAPTER XVI +BLACK HANNIBAL'S WHITE HEART + +CHAPTER XVII +THE CHANGES OF TWO SHORT MONTHS + +CHAPTER XVIII +IGNORANCE LOOKING FOR WORK + +CHAPTER XIX +A FALLING STAR + +CHAPTER XX +DESOLATION + +CHAPTER XXI +EDITH'S TRUE KNIGHT + +CHAPTER XXII +A MYSTERY + +CHAPTER XXIII +A DANGEROUS STEP + +CHAPTER XXIV +SCORN AND KINDNESS + +CHAPTER XXV +A HORROR OF GREAT DARKNESS + +CHAPTER XXVI +FRIEND AND SAVIOUR + +CHAPTER XXVII +THE MYSTERY SOLVED + +CHAPTER XXVIII +EDITH TELLS THE OLD, OLD STORY + +CHAPTER XXIX +HANNIBAL LEARNS HOW HIS HEART CAN BE WHITE + +CHAPTER XXX +EDITH'S AND ARDEN'S FRIENDSHIP + +CHAPTER XXXI +ZELL + +CHAPTER XXXII +EDITH BRINGS THE WANDERER HOME + +CHAPTER XXXIII +EDITH'S GREAT TEMPTATION + +CHAPTER XXXIV +SAVED + +CHAPTER XXXV +CLOSING SCENES + +CHAPTER XXXVI +LAST WORDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THREE GIRLS + + + +It was a very cold blustering day in early January, and even brilliant +thronged Broadway felt the influence of winter's harshest frown. There +had been a heavy fall of snow which, though in the main cleared from +the sidewalks, lay in the streets comparatively unsullied and +unpacked. Fitful gusts of the passing gale caught it up and whirled it +in every direction. From roof, ledges, and window-sills, miniature +avalanches suddenly descended on the startled pedestrians, and the air +was here and there loaded with falling flakes from wild hurrying +masses of clouds, the rear-guard of the storm that the biting +northwest wind was driving seaward. + +It was early in the afternoon, and the great thoroughfare was almost +deserted. Few indeed would be abroad for pleasure in such weather, and +the great tide of humanity that must flow up and down this channel +every working day of the year under all skies had not yet turned +northward. + +But surely this graceful figure coming up the street with quick, +elastic steps has not the aspect of one driven forth by grave business +cares, nor in the natural course of things would one expect so young a +lady to know much of life's burdens and responsibilities. As she +passes I am sure the reader would not turn away from so pleasant a +vision, even if Broadway were presenting all its numberless +attractions, but at such a time would make the most of the occasion, +assured that nothing so agreeable would greet his eyes again that +sombre day. + +The fierce gusts make little impression on her heavy, close-fitting +velvet dress, and in her progress against the wind she appears so trim +and taut that a sailor's eye would be captivated. She bends her little +turbaned head to the blast, and her foot strikes the pavement with a +decision that suggests a naturally brave, resolute nature, and gives +abundant proof of vigor and health. A trimming of silver fox fur +caught and contrasted the snow crystals against the black velvet of +her dress, in which the flakes catch and mingle, increasing the sense +of lightness and airiness which her movements awaken, and were you +seeking a fanciful embodiment of the spirit of the snow, you might +rest satisfied with the first character that appears upon the scene of +my story. + +But on nearer view there was nothing spirit-like or even spirituelle +in her aspect, save that an extremely transparent complexion was +rendered positively dazzling by the keen air and the glow of exercise; +and the face was much too full and blooming to suggest the shadowy and +ethereal. + +When near Twenty-first Street she entered a fruit store and seemed in +search of some delicacy for an invalid. As her eye glanced around +among the fragrant tropical fruits that suggested lands in wide +contrast to the wintry scene without, she suddenly uttered a low +exclamation of delight, as she turned from them to old friends, all +the more welcome because so unexpected at that season. These were +nothing less than a dozen strawberries, in dainty baskets, decked out, +or more truly eked out, with a few green leaves. Three or four baskets +constituted the fruiterer's entire stock, and probably the entire +supply for the metropolis of America that day. + +She had scarcely time to lift a basket and inhale its delicious aroma, +before the proprietor of the store was in bowing attendance, quite as +openly admiring her carnation cheeks as she the ruby fruit The man's +tongue was, however, more decorous than his eyes, and to her question +as to price he replied: + +"_Only_ two dollars a basket, miss, and certainly they are beauties +for this season of the year. They are all I could get, and I don't +believe there is another strawberry in New York." + +"I will take them all," was the brief, decisive answer, and from a +costly portemonnaie she threw down the price, a proceeding which the +man noted in agreeable surprise, again curiously scanning the fair +face as he made up the parcel with ostentatious zeal. But his customer +was unconscious, or, more truly, indifferent to his admiration, and +seemed much more interested in the samples of choice fruit arranged on +every side. From one to another of these she flitted with the delicate +sensuousness of a butterfly, smelling them and touching them lightly +with the hand she had ungloved (which was as white as the snow +without), as if they had for her a peculiar fascination. + +"You seem very fond of fruit," said the merchant, his _amour propre_ +pleased by her evident interest in his stock. + +"I have ever had a passion for fine fruits and flowers," was the +reply, spoken with that perfect frankness characteristic of American +girls. "No, you need not send it; I prefer to take it with me." + +And with a slight smile, she passed out, leaving the fruiterer +chuckling over the thought that he had probably had the pleasantest +bit of trade on Broadway that dull day. + +Plunging through the drifts, our nymph of the snow resolutely crossed +the street and passed down to a flower store, but, instead of buying a +bouquet, ordered several pots of budding and blooming plants to be +sent to her address. She then made her way to Fifth Avenue and soon +mounted a broad flight of steps to one of its most stately houses. The +door yielded to her key, her thick walking boots clattered for a +moment on the marble floor, but could not disguise the lightness of +her step as she tripped up the winding stair and pushed open a +rosewood door leading into the upper hall. + +"Mother, mother," she exclaimed, "here is a treat for you that will +banish nerves, headache, and horrors generally. See what I have found +for you out in the wintry snows. Now am I not a good fairy for once?" + +"Oh, Edith, child, not so boisterous, please," responded a querulous +voice from a great easy-chair by the glowing grate, and a middle-aged +lady turned a white, faded face toward her daughter. + +"Forgive me, mother, but my tramp in the January storm has made me +feel rampantly well. I wish you could go out and take a run every day +as I do. You would then look younger and prettier than your daughters, +as you used to." + +The invalid shivered and drew her shawl closer around her, +complaining: + +"I think you have brought the whole month of January in with you. You +really must show more consideration, my dear, for if I should take +cold--" and the lady ended with a weary, suggestive sigh. + +In fact, Edith had entered the dim heavily-perfumed room like a gust +of wholesome air, her young blood tingling and electric with exercise, +and her heart buoyant with the thought of the surprise and pleasure +she had in store for her mother. But the manner in which she had been +received had already chilled her more than the biting blasts on +Broadway. She therefore opened her bundle and set out the little +baskets before her mother very quietly. The lady glanced at them for a +moment and then said, indifferently: + +"It is very good of you to think of me, my dear; they look very +pretty. I am sorry I cannot eat them, but their acid would only +increase my dyspepsia. Those raised in winter must be very sour. Ugh! +the thought of it sets my teeth on edge," and the poor, nervous +creature shrank deeper into her wrappings. + +"I am very sorry, mother, I thought they would be a great treat for +you," said Edith, quite crestfallen. "Never mind; I got some flowers, +and they will be here soon." + +"Thank you, dear, but the doctor says they are not healthy in a room-- +Oh, dear--that child! what shall I do!" + +The front door banged, there was a step on the stairs, but not so +light as Edith's had been, and a moment later the door burst open, and +"the child" rushed in like a mild whirlwind, exclaiming: + +"Hurrah! hurrah! school to the shades. No more teachers and tyrants +for me," and down went an armful of books with a bang on the table. + +"Oh, Zell!" cried Edith, "please be quiet; mother has a headache." + +"There, there, your baby will kiss it all away," and the irrepressible +young creature threw her arms around the bundle that Mrs. Allen had +made herself into by her many wrappings, and before she ceased, the +red pouting lips left the faintest tinge of their own color on the +faded cheeks of the mother. + +The lady endured the boisterous embrace with a martyr-like expression. +Zell was evidently a privileged character, the spoiled pet of the +household. But a new voice was now heard that was sharper than the +"pet" was accustomed to. + +"Zell, you are a perfect bear. One would think you had learned your +manners at a boys' boarding school." + +Zell's great black eyes blazed for a moment toward the speaker, who +was a young lady reclining on a lounge near the window, and who in +appearance must have been the counterpart of Mrs. Allen herself as she +had looked twenty-three years before. In contrast with her sharp, +annoyed tone, her cheeks and eyes were wet with tears. + +"What are you crying about?" was Zell's brusque response. "Oh, I see; +a novel. What a ridiculous old thing you are. I never saw you shed a +tear over real trouble, and yet every few days you are dissolved in +brine over Adolph Moonshine's agonies, and Seraphina's sentiment, +which any sensible person can see is caused by dyspepsia. No such +whipped syllabub for me, but real life." + +"And what does 'real life' mean for you, I would like to know, but +eating, dressing, and flirting?" was the acid retort. + +"Though you call me 'child,' I have lived long enough to learn that +eating, dressing, and flirting, and while you are about it you might +as well add drinking, is the 'real life' of most of the ladies of our +set. Indeed, if my poor memory does not fail me, I have seen you +myself take a turn at these things sufficiently often to make the +sublime scorn of your tone a little inconsistent." + +As these barbed arrows flew, the tears rapidly exhaled from the hot +cheeks of the young lady on the sofa. Her elegant languor vanished, +and she started up; but Mrs. Allen now interfered, and in tones harsh +and high, very different from the previous delicate murmurs, +exclaimed: + +"Children, you drive me wild. Zell, leave the room, and don't show +yourself again till you can behave yourself." + +Zell was now sobbing, partly in sorrow and partly in anger, but she +let fly a few more Parthian arrows over her shoulder as she passed +out. + +"This is a pretty way to treat one on their birthday. I came home with +heart as light as the snowflakes around me, and now you have spoiled +everything. I don't know how it is, but I always have a good time +everywhere else, but there is something in this house that often sets +one's teeth on edge," and the door banged appropriately with a +spiteful emphasis as the last word was spoken. + +"Poor child," said Edith, "it _is_ too bad that she should be so +dashed with cold water on her birthday." + +"She isn't a child," said the eldest sister, rising from the sofa and +sweeping from the room, "though she often acts like one, and a very +bad one too. Her birthday should remind her that if she is ever to be +a woman, it is time to commence," and the stately young lady passed +coldly away. Edith, went to the window and looked dejectedly out into +the early gloom of the declining winter day. Mrs. Allen sighed and +looked more nervous and uncomfortable than usual. + +The upholsterer had done his part in that elegant home, The feet sank +into the carpets as in moss. Luxurious chairs seemed to embrace the +form that sank into them. Everything, was padded, rounded, and +softened, except tongues and tempers. If wealth could remove the +asperities from these as from material things, it might well be +coveted. But this is beyond the upholsterer's art, and Mrs. Allen knew +little of the Divine art that can wrap up words and deeds with a +kindness softer than eider-down. + +"Mother's room," instead of being a refuge and a favorite haunt of +these three girls, was a place where, as we have seen, their "teeth +were set on edge." + +Naturally they shunned the place, visiting the invalid rather than +living with her; their reluctant feet impelled across the threshold by +a sense of duty rather than drawn by the cords of love. The mother +felt this in a vague, uncomfortable way, for mother love was there, +only it had seemingly turned sour, and instead of attracting her +children by sweetness and sympathy, she querulously complained to them +and to her husband of their neglect. He would sometimes laugh it off, +sometimes shrug his shoulders indifferently, and again harshly chide +the girls, according to his mood, for he varied much in this respect. +After being cool and wary all day in Wall Street, he took off the curb +at home; therefore the variations that never could be counted on. How +he would be at dinner did not depend on himself or any principle, but +on circumstances. In the main he was indulgent and kind, though quick +and passionate, brooking no opposition; and the girls were really more +attached to him and found more pleasure in his society than in their +mother's. Zelica, the youngest, was his special favorite, and he +humored and petted her at a ruinous rate, though often storming at +some of her follies. + +Mrs. Allen saw this preference of her husband, and was weak enough to +feel and show jealousy. But her complainings were ineffectual, for we +can no more scold people into loving us than nature could make buds +blossom by daily nipping them with frost. And yet she made her +children uncomfortable by causing them to feel that it was unnatural +and wrong that they did not care more for their mother. This was +especially true of Edith, who tried to satisfy her conscience, as we +have seen, by bringing costly presents and delicacies that were seldom +needed or appreciated. + +Edith soon became so oppressed by her mother's sighs and silence and +the heavy perfumed air, that she sprang up, and pressing a remorseful +kiss on the white thin face, said: + +"I must dress for dinner, mamma: I will send your maid," and vanished +also. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A FUTURE OF HUMAN DESIGNING + + + +The dining-room at six o'clock wore a far more cheerful aspect than +the invalid's room upstairs. It was furnished in a costly manner, but +more ostentatiously than good taste would dictate. You instinctively +felt that it was a sacred place to the master of the house, in which +he daily sacrificed to one of his chosen deities. + +The portly colored waiter, in dress coat and white vest, has just +placed the soup on the table, and Mr. Allen enters, supporting his +wife. He had sort of manly toleration for all her whims and +weaknesses. He had never indulged in any lofty ideas of womanhood, nor +had any special longings for her sympathy and companionship. Business +was the one engrossing thing of his life, and this he honestly +believed woman incapable of, from her very nature. It was true of his +wife, but due to a false education rather than to any innate +difficulties, and he no more expected her to comprehend and sympathize +intelligently with his business operations, than to see her go down to +Wall Street with him wearing his hat and coat. + +She had been the leading belle in his set years ago. He had admired +her immensely as a stylish, beautiful woman, and carried her off from +dozens of competitors, who were fortunate in their failure. He always +maintained a show of gallantry and deference; which, though but +veneer, was certainly better than open disregard and brutal neglect. + +So now, with a good-natured tolerance and politeness, he seated the +feeble creature in a cushioned chair at the table, treating her more +like a spoiled child than as a friend and companion. The girls +immediately appeared also, for they knew their father's weakness too +well to keep him waiting for his dinner. + +Zell bounded into his arms in her usual impulsive style, and the +father caressed her in a way that showed that his heart was very +tender toward his youngest child. + +"And so my baby is seventeen to-day," he said. "Well, well, how fast +we are growing old." + +The girl laughed; the man sighed. The one was on the threshold of what +she deemed the richest pleasures of life; the other had well-nigh +exhausted them, and for a moment realized it. + +Still he was in excellent spirits, for he had been unusually fortunate +that day, and had seen his way to an "operation" that promised a +golden future. He sat down therefore to the good cheer with not a +little of the spirit of the man in the parable, whose complacent +exhortation to his soul has ever been the language of false security +and prosperity. + +The father's open favoritism for Zell was another source of jealousy, +her sisters naturally feeling injured by it. Thus in this household +even human love was discordant and perverted, and the Divine love +unknown. What chance had character, that thing of slow growth, in such +an atmosphere? + +The popping of a champagne cork took the place of grace at the opening +of the meal, and the glasses were filled all around. In honor of +Zell's birthday they drank to her health and happiness. By no better +form or more suggestive ceremony could this Christian (?) family wish +their youngest member "God-speed" on entering the vicissitudes of a +new year of life. But what they did was done heartily, and every glass +was drained. To them it seemed very appropriate and her father said, +glancing admiringly at her flaming cheeks and dancing eyes-- + +"This is just the thing to drink Zell's health in, for she is as full +of sparkle and effervescence as the champagne itself." + +Had he been a wiser and more thoughtful man, he would have carried the +simile further and remembered the fate of champagne when exposed. +However piquant and pleasing Zell's sparkle might be, it would hardly +secure success and safety for life. But in his creed a girl's first +duty was to be pretty and fascinating, and he was extremely proud of +the beauty of his daughters. It was his plan to marry them to rich men +who would maintain them in the irresponsible luxury that their mother +had enjoyed. + +Circumstances seemed to justify his security. The son of a rich man, +he had also inherited a taste for business and the art of making +money. Years of prosperity had confirmed his confidence, and he looked +complacently around upon his family and talked of the future in +sanguine tones. + +He was a man considerably past his prime, and his florid face and +portly form indicated that he was in the habit of doing ample justice +to the good cheer before him. Intense application to business in early +years and indulgence of appetite in later life had seriously impaired +a constitution naturally good. He reminded you of a flower fully blown +or of fruit overripe. + +"Since you have permitted Zell to leave school, I suppose she must +make her debut soon," said Mrs. Allen with more animation than usual +in her tone. + +"Oh, certainly," cried Zell, "on Edith's birthday, in February. We +have arranged it all, haven't we, Edith?" + +"Heigho! then I am to have no part in the matter," said her father. + +"Yes, indeed, papa," cried the saucy girl, "you are to have no end of +kisses, and a very long bill." + +This sally pleased him immensely, for it expressed his ideal of +womanly return for masculine affection, at least the bills had never +been wanting in his experience. But, mellowed by wine and elated by +the success of the day, he now prepared to give the coup that would +make a far greater sensation in the family circle than even a debut or +a birthday party. So, glancing from one eager face to another (for +between the wine and the excitement even Mrs. Allen was no longer a +colorless, languid creature, ready to faint at the embrace of her +child), he said with a twinkle in his eye-- + +"Well, go to your mother about the party. She is a veteran in such +matters. But let there be some limit to the length of the bill, or I +can't carry out another plan I have in view for you." + +Chorus--"What is that?" + +Coolly filling his glass, he commenced leisurely sipping, while +glancing humorously from one to another, enjoying their impatient +expectancy. + +"If you don't tell us right away," cried Zell, bouncing up, "I'll pull +your whiskers without mercy." + +"Papa, you will throw mother into a fever. See how flushed her face +is!" said Laura, the eldest daughter, speaking at the same time two +words for herself. + +The face of Edith, with dazzling complexion all aglow, and large dark +eyes lustrous with excitement, was more eloquent than words could have +been, and the bon vivant drank in her expression with as much zest as +he sipped his wine. Perhaps it was well for him to make the most of +that little keen-edged moment of bright anticipation and bewildering +hope, for what he was about to propose would cost him many thousands, +and exile him from business, which to him was the very breath of life. + +But Mrs. Allen's matter-of-fact voice brought things to a crisis, for +with an injured air she said: + +"How can you, George, when you know the state of my nerves?" + +"What I propose, mamma, will cure your nerves and everything else, for +it is nothing less than a tour through Europe." + +There was a shriek of delight from the girls, in which even the +exquisite Laura joined, and Mrs. Allen trembled with excitement. Apart +from the trip itself, they considered it a sort of disgrace that a +family of their social position and wealth had never been abroad. +Therefore the announcement was doubly welcome. Hitherto Mr. Allen's +devotion to business had made it impossible, and he had given them no +hints of the near consummation of their wishes. But he had begun to +feel the need of change and rest himself, and this weighed more with +him than all their entreaties. + +In a moment Zell had her arms about his neck, and her sisters were +throwing him kisses across the table. His wife, looking unusually +gratified, said: + +"You are a sensible man at last," which was a great deal for Mrs. +Allen to say. + +"Why, mamma," exclaimed her husband, elevating his eyebrows in comic +surprise, "that I should live to hear you say that!" + +"Now don't be silly," she replied, joining slightly in the laugh at +her expense, "or we shall think that you have taken too much +champagne, and that this Europe business is all a hoax." + +"Wait till you have been outside of Sandy Hook an hour, and you will +find everything real enough then. I think I see the elegant ladies of +my household about that time." + +"For shame, papa! what an uncomfortable suggestion over a dinner +table!" said the fastidious Laura. "Picture the ladies of your +household in the salons of Paris. I promise we will do you credit +there." + +"I hope so, for I fear I shall have need of _credit_ when you all +reach that Mecca of women." + +"It's no more the Mecca of women than Wall Street is the Jerusalem of +men. What you are all going to do in Heaven without Wall Street, I +don't see." + +Mr. Allen gave his significant shrug and said, "I don't meet notes +till they are due," which was his way of saying: "Sufficient unto the +day is the evil thereof." + +"The salons of Paris!" said Edith, with some disdain. "Think of the +scenery, the orange-groves, and vineyards that we shall see, the +Alpine flowers--" + +"I declare," interrupted Zell, "I believe that Edith would rather see +a grape-vine and orange-tree than all the toilets of Paris." + +"I shall enjoy seeing both," was the reply, "and so have the advantage +of you in having two strings to my bow." + +"By the way, that reminds me to ask how many beaux you now have on the +string," said the father. + +Edith tossed her head with a pretty blush and said: "Pity me, my +father; you know I am always poor at arithmetic." + +"You will take up with a crooked stick after all. Now Laura is a +sensible girl, like her mother, and has picked out one of the richest, +longest-headed fellows on the street." + +"Indeed!" said his wife. "I do not see but you are paying yourself a +greater compliment than either Laura or me." + +"Oh, no, a mere business statement. Laura means business, and so does +Mr. Goulden." + +Laura looked annoyed and said: + +"Pa, I thought you never talked business at home." + +"Oh, this is a feminine phase that women understand. I want your +sisters to profit by your good example." + +"I shall marry an Italian count," cried Zell. + +"Who will turn out a fourth-rate Italian barber, and I shall have to +support you both. But I won't do it. You would have to help him +shave." + +"No, I should transform him into a leader of banditti, and we would +live in princely state in the Apennines. Then we would capture you, +papa, and carry you off to the mountains, and I would be your jailer, +and give you nothing but turtle-soup, champagne, and kisses till you +paid a ransom that would break Wall Street." + +"I would not pay a cent, but stay and eat you out of house and home." + +"I never expect to marry," said Edith, "but some day I am going to +commence saving my money--now don't laugh, papa, for I could be +economical if I once made up my mind"--and the pretty head gave a +decisive little nod. + +"I am going to save my money and buy a beautiful place in the country +and make it as near like the garden of Eden as possible." + +"Snakes will get into it as of old," was Mrs. Allen's cynical remark. + +"Yes, that is woman's experience with a garden," said her husband with +a mock sigh. + +Popping off the cork of another bottle, he added, "I have got ahead of +you, Edith. I own a place in the country, much as I dislike that kind +of property. I had to take it to-day in a trade, and so am a +landholder in Pushton--prospect, you see, of my becoming a rural +gentleman (Squire is the title, I believe), and of exchanging stock in +Wall Street for the stock of a farm. Here's to my estate of three +acres with a story and a half mansion upon it! Perhaps you would +rather go up there this summer than to Paris, my dear?" to his wife. + +Mrs. Allen gave a contemptuous shrug as if the jest were too +preposterous to be answered, but Edith cried: + +"Fill my glass; I will drink to your country place. I know the cottage +is a sweet rustic little box, all smothered with vines and roses like +one I saw last June." Then she added in sport, "I wish you would give +it to me for my birthday present. It would make such a nice porter's +lodge at the entrance to my future Eden." + +"Are you in earnest?" asked the father suddenly. + +Both were excited by the wine they had drunk. She glanced at her +father, and saw that he was in a mood to say yes to anything, and, +quick as thought, she determined to get the place if possible. + +"Of course I am. I would rather have it than all the jewelry in New +York." She was over-supplied with that style of gift. + +"You shall have it then, for I am sure I don't want it, and am +devoutly thankful to be rid of it." + +Edith clapped her hands with a delight scarcely less demonstrative +than that of Zell in her wildest moods. + +"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Allen; "the idea of giving a young lady such an +elephant!" + +"Bat remember," continued her father, "you must manage it yourself, +pay the taxes, keep it repaired, insured, etc. There is a first-class +summer hotel near it. Next year, after we get back from Europe, we +will go up there and stay awhile. You shall then take possession, +employ an agent to take care of it, who by the way will cheat you to +your heart's content. I will wager you a box of gloves that, before a +year passes, you will try to sell the ivy-twined cottage for anything +you can get, and will be thoroughly cured of your mania for country +life." + +"I'll take you up," said Edith, in great excitement, "but remember, I +want my deed on my birthday." + +"All right," said Mr. Allen, laughing. "I will transfer it to you to- +morrow, while I think of it. But don't try to trade it off to me +before next month for a new dress." + +Edith was half wild over her present. Many and varied were her +questions, but her father only said: + +"I don't know much about it. I did not listen to half the man said, +but I remember he stated there was a good deal of fruit on the place, +for it made me think of you at the time. Bless you, I could not stop +for such small game. I am negotiating a large and promising operation +which you understand about as well as farming. It will take some time +to carry it through, but when finished we will start for the 'salons +of Paris.'" + +"I half believe," said Laura, with a covert sneer, "that Edith would +rather go up to her farm of three acres." + +"I am well satisfied as papa has arranged it," said the practical +girl. "Everything in its place, and get all out of life you can, is my +creed." + +"That means, get all out of me you can, don't it, sly puss?" laughed +the father, well pleased, though, with the worldly wisdom of the +speech. + +"Kisses, kisses, unlimited kisses, and consider yourself well repaid," +was the arch rejoinder; and not a few, looking at her as she then +appeared, would have coveted such bargains. So her father seemed to +think as he gazed admiringly at her. + +But something in Zell's pouting lips and vexed expression caught his +eye, and he said good-naturedly: + +"Heigho, youngster, what has brought a thunder-cloud across your saucy +face?" + +"In providing for birthdays to come, I guess you have forgotten your +baby's birthday present." + +"Come here, you envious elf," said her father, taking something from +his pocket. Like light she flashed out from under the cloud and was at +his side in an instant, dimpling, smiling, and twinkling with +expectation, her black eyes as quick and restless as her father was +deliberate and slow in undoing a dainty parcel. + +"Oh, George, do be quick about it, or Zell will explode. You both make +me nervous," said Mrs. Allen fretfully. + +Suddenly pressing open a velvet casket, Mr. Allen hung a jewelled +watch with a long gold chain about his favorite's neck, while she +improvised a hornpipe around his chair. + +"There," said he, "is something that is worth more than Edith's farm, +tumble-down cottage, roses, and all. So remember that those lips were +made to kiss, not to pout with." + +Zell put her lips to proper uses to that extent that Mrs. Allen began +to grow jealous, nervous, and out of sorts generally, and having +finished her chocolate, rose feebly from the table. Her husband +offered his arm and the family dinner party broke up. + +And yet, take it altogether, each one was in higher spirits than +usual, and Zell and Edith were in a state of positive delight. They +had received costly gifts that specially gratified their peculiar +tastes, and these, with the promise of a grand party and a trip to +Europe, youthful buoyancy, and champagne, so dilated their little +feminine souls that Mrs. Allen's fears of an explosion of some kind +were scarcely groundless. They dragged their stately sister Laura, now +unwontedly bland and affable, to the piano, and called for the +quickest and most brilliant of waltzes, and a moment later their lithe +figures flowed away in a rhythm of motion, that from their exuberance +of feeling, was as fantastic as it was graceful. + +Mr. Allen assisted his wife to her room and soon left her in an +unusually contented frame of mind to develop strategy for the coming +party. Mrs. Allen's nerves utterly incapacitated her for the care of +her household, attendance upon church, and such humdrum matters, but +in view of a great occasion like a "grand crush ball," where among the +luminaries of fashion she could become the refulgent centre of a +constellation which her fair daughters would make around her, her +spirit rose to the emergency. When it came to dress and dressmakers +and all the complications of the campaign now opening, notwithstanding +her nerves, she could be quite Napoleonic. + +Her husband retired to the library, lighted a choice Havana, skimmed +his evening papers, and then as usual went to his club. + +This, as a general thing, was the extent of the library's literary +uses. The best authors in gold and Russia smiled down from the black +walnut shelves, but the books were present rather as furniture than +from any intrinsic value in themselves to the family. They were given +prominence on the same principle that led Mrs. Allen to give a certain +tone to her entertainments by inviting many literary and scientific +men. She might be unable to appreciate the works of the _savants_, but +as they appreciated the labors of her masterly French cook, many +compromised the matter by eating the _petits soupers_ and shrugging +their shoulders over the entertainers. + +And yet the Allens were anything but vulgar upstarts. Both husband and +wife were descended from old and wealthy New York families. They had +all the polish which life-long association with the fashionable world +bestows. What was more, they were highly intelligent, and, in their +own sphere, gifted people. Mr. Allen was a leader in business in one +of the chief commercial centres, and to lead in legitimate business in +our day requires as much ability, indeed we may say genius, as to lead +in any order department of life. He would have shown no more ignorance +in the study, studio, and laboratory, than their occupants would have +shown in the counting-room. That to which he devoted his energies he +had become a master in. It is true he had narrowed down his life to +little else than business. He had never acquired a taste for art and +literature, nor had he given himself time for broad culture. But we +meet narrow artists, narrow clergymen, narrow scientists just as +truly. If you do not get on their hobby and ride with them, they seem +disposed to ride over you. Indeed, in our brief life with its fierce +competitions, few other than what are known as "one idea" men have +time to succeed. Even genius must drive with tremendous and +concentrated energy, to distance competitors. Mr. Allen was quite as +great in his department as any of the lions that his wife lured into +her parlors were in theirs. + +Mrs. Allen was also a leader in her own chosen sphere, or rather in +the one to which she had been educated. Given _carte-blanche_ in the +way of expense, she would produce a brilliant entertainment which few +could surpass. The coloring and decorations of her rooms would not be +more rich, varied, or in better taste, than the diversity, and yet +harmony of the people she would bring together by her adroit +selections. She had studied society, and for it she lived, not to make +it better, not to elevate its character, and tone down its +extravagances, but simply to shine in it, to be talked about and +envied. + +Both husband and wife had achieved no small success, and to succeed in +such a city as New York in their chosen departments required a certain +amount of genius. The _savants_ had a general admiration for Mrs. +Allen's style and taste, but found that she had nothing to offer on +the social exchange of her parlors but fashion's smallest chit-chat. +They had a certain respect for Mr. Allen's wealth and business power, +but, having discussed the news of the day, they would pass on, and the +people during the intervals of dancing drifted into congenial schools +and shoals, like fish in a lake. Mr. and Mrs. Allen had a vague +admiration for the learning of the scholars and the culture of the +artists, but would infinitely prefer marrying their daughters to +downtown merchant princes. + +Take the world over, perhaps all classes of people are despising +others quite as much as they are despised themselves. + +But when the French cook appeared upon the scene, then was produced +your true democracy. Then was shown a phase of life into which all +entered with a zest that proved the common tie of humanity. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THREE MEN + + + +While Mrs. Allen was planning the social pyrotechnics that should +dazzle the fashionable world, Edith and Zell were working off their +exuberant spirits in the manner described in the last chapter, which +was as natural to their city-bred feet as a wild romp is to a country +girl. + +The brilliant notes of the piano and the rustle of their silks had +rendered them oblivious to the fact that the door-bell had rung twice, +and that three gentlemen were peering curiously through the half-open +door. They were evidently frequent and favored visitors, and had +motioned the old colored waiter not to announce them, and he +reluctantly obeyed. + +For a moment they feasted their eyes on the scene, as the two girls, +with twining arms and many innovations on the regular step, whirled +through the rooms, and then Zell's quick eye detected them. + +Pouncing upon the eldest gentleman of the party, she dragged him from +his ambush, while the others also entered. The youngest approached the +blushing, panting Edith with an almost boyish confidence of manner, as +if assured of a welcome, while the remaining gentleman, who was +verging toward middle age, quietly glided to the piano and gave his +hand to Laura, who greeted him with a cordiality scarcely to be +expected from so stately a young lady. + +The laws of affinity and selection were evidently in force here, and +as the reader must surmise, long acquaintance had led to the present +easy and intimate relations. + +"What do you mean," cried Zell, dragging under the gaslight her +cavalier, who assumed much penitence and fear, "by thus rudely and +abruptly breaking in upon the retirement of three secluded young +ladies?" + +"At their devotions," added the cynical voice of the gentleman at the +piano, who was no other than Mr. Goulden, Laura's admirer. + +Zell's attendant threw himself in the attitude of a suppliant and said +deprecatingly: + +"Nay, but we are astronomers." + +"That's a fib, and not a very white one either," she retorted. "I +don't believe you ever look toward heaven for anything." + +"What need of looking thither for heavenly bodies?" he replied in a +low, meaning tone, regarding with undisguised admiration her glowing +cheeks. "Moreover, I don't like telescopic distances," he continued, +with a half-made motion to put his arm around her waist. + +"Come," she said, pirouetting out of his reach, "remember I am no +longer a child, I am seventeen to-day." + +"Would that you might never be a day older in appearance and +feelings!" + +"Are you willing to leave me so far behind?" she asked with some +maliciousness. + +"No, but you would make me a boy again. If old Ponce de Leon had met a +Miss Zell, he would soon have forsaken the swamps and alligators of +Florida." "Oh, what a watery, scaly compliment! Preferred to swamps +and alligators! Who would have believed it?" + +"I am not blind to your pretty, wilful blindness. You know I likened +you to something too divine and precious to be found on earth." + +"Which is still true in the carrying out of your marvellously mixed +metaphors. I must lend you my rhetoric book. But as your meaning dawns +on me, I see that you are symbolized by old Ponce. I shall look in the +history for the age of the ancient Spaniard to-morrow, and then I +shall know how old you are, a thing I could never find out." + +As with little jets of silvery laughter and with butterfly motion she +hovered round him, the very embodiment of life and beautiful youth, +she would have made, to an artist's eye, a very true realization of +the far-famed mythical fountain. + +And yet, as a moment later she confidingly took his arm and strolled +toward the library, it was evident that all her flutter and hesitancy, +her seeming freedom and mimic show of war, were like those of some +bright tropical bird fascinated by a remorseless serpent whose intent +eyes and deadly purpose are creating a spell that cannot be resisted. + +Mr. Van Dam, upon whose arm she was leaning, was one of the worst +products of artificial metropolitan life. He had inherited a name +which ancestry had rendered honorable, but which he to the utmost +dishonored, and yet so adroitly, so shrewdly respecting fashion's +code, though shunning nothing wrong, that he did not lose the _entree_ +of the gilded homes of those who called themselves "the best society." + +True, it was whispered that he was rather fast, that he played heavily +and a trifle too successfully, and that he lived the life of anything +but a saint at his luxurious rooms. "But then," continued society, +openly and complacently, "he is so fine-looking, so courtly and +polished, so well connected, and what is still more to the point, my +dear, he is reputed to be immensely wealthy, so we must not heed these +rumors. After all, it is the way of these young men of the world." + +Thus "the best society" that would have politely frozen out of its +parlors the Chevalier Bayard, _sans peur et sans reproche_, had he not +appeared in the latest style, with golden fame rather than golden +spurs, welcomed Mr. Van Dam. Indeed, not a few forced exotic belles, +who had prematurely developed in the hothouse atmosphere of wealth and +extravagance, regarded him as a sort of social lion; and his +reticence, with a certain mystery in which he shrouded his evil life, +made him all the more fascinating. He was past the prime of life, +though exceedingly well preserved, for he was one of those cool, +deliberate votaries of pleasure that reduce amusement to a science, +and carefully shun all injurious excess. While exceedingly deferential +toward the sex in general, and bestowing compliments and attentions as +adroitly as a financier would place his money, he at the same time +permitted the impression to grow that he was extremely fastidious in +his taste, and had never married because it had never been his fortune +to meet the faultless being who could satisfy his exacting eyes. Any +special and continued admiration on his part therefore made its +recipient an object of distinction and envy to very many in the unreal +world in which he glided serpent-like, rather than moved as a man. To +morbid minds his rumored evil deeds became piquant eccentricities, and +the whispers of the oriental orgies that were said to take place in +his bachelor apartments made him an object of a curious interest, and +many sighed for the opportunity of reforming so distinguished a +sybarite. + +On Edith's entrance into society he had been much impressed by her +beauty, and had gradually grown quite attentive, equally attracted by +her father's wealth. But she, though with no clear perception of his +character, and with no higher moral standard than that of her set, +instinctively shrank from the man. Indeed, in some respects, they were +too much alike for that mysterious attraction that so often occurs +between opposites. Not that she had his unnatural depravity, but like +him she was shrewd, practical, resolute, and was controlled by her +judgment rather than by her impulses. Her vanity, of which she had no +little share, led her to accept his attentions to a certain point, but +the keen man of the world soon saw that his "little game," as in his +own vernacular he styled it, would not be successful, and he was the +last one to sigh in vain or mope an hour in lovelorn melancholy. While +ceasing to press his suit, he continued to be a frequent and familiar +visitor at the house, and thus his attention was drawn to Zell, who, +though young, had developed early in the stimulating atmosphere in +which she lived. At first he petted and played with ner as a child, as +she wilfully flitted in and out of the parlors, whether her sisters +wanted her or not. He continually brought her _bon-bons_ and like +fanciful trifles, till at last, in jest, the family called him Zell's +"ancient beau." + +But during the past year it had dawned on him that the child he petted +on account of her beauty and sprightliness, was rapidly becoming a +brilliant woman, who would make a wife far more to his taste than her +equally beautiful but matter-of-fact sister. Therefore he warily, so +as not to alarm the jealous father, but with all the subtle skill of +which he was master, sought to win her affections, knowing that she +would have her own way when she knew what way she wanted. + +For Zell this unscrupulous man had a peculiar fascination. He petted +and flattered her to her heart's content, and thus made her the envy +of her young acquaintances, which was incense indeed to her vain +little soul. He never lectured or preached to her on account of her +follies and nonsense, as her elderly friends usually did, but gave to +her wild, impulsive moods free rein. Where a true friend would have +cautioned and curbed, he applauded and incited, causing Zell to +mistake extravagance in language and boldness in manner for spirit and +brilliancy. Laura and Edith often remonstrated with her, but she did +not heed them. Indeed, she feared no one save her father, and Mr. Van +Dam was propriety itself when he was present, which was but seldom. +What with his business, and club, and Mrs. Allen's nerves, the girls +were left mainly to themselves. + +What wonder that there are so many shipwrecks, when young, heedless, +inexperienced hands must steer, unguided, through the most perilous +and treacherous of seas? + +Mr. Allen's elegant, costly home was literally an unguarded fold, many +a laborer, living in a tenement house, doing more to shield his +daughters from the evil of the world. + +To Mr. Van Dam, Zell was a perfect prize. Though he had sipped at the +cup of pleasure so leisurely and systematically, he was getting down +to the dregs. His taste was becoming palled, and satiety was burdening +him with its leaden weight. But as the child he petted developed daily +toward womanhood, he became interested, then fascinated by the +process. Her beauty was so brilliant, her excessive sprightliness so +contagious, that he felt his sluggish pulses stir and tingle with +excitement the moment he came into her presence. Her wild, varying +moods kept him constantly on the _qui vive_, and he would say in +confidence to one of his intimate cronies: + +"The point is, Hal, she is such a spicy, piquant contrast to the +insipid society girls, who have no more individuality than fashion +blocks in Broadway windows." + +He liked the kittenish young creature all the more because her +repartee was often a little cutting. If she had always struck him with +a velvet paw, the thing would have grown monotonous, but he +occasionally got a scratch that made him wince, cool and brazen as he +was. But, after all, he daily saw that he was gaining power over her, +and the manner in which the frank-hearted girl took his arm and leaned +upon it spoke volumes to the experienced man. While he habitually wore +a mask, Zell could conceal nothing, and across her April face flitted +her innermost thoughts. + +If she had had a _mother_, she might, even in the wilderness of earth, +have become a blossom fit for heavenly gardens, but as it was, her +wayward nature, so full of dangerous beauty, was left to run wild. + +Edith was beginning to be troubled at Zell's intimacy with Mr. Van +Dam, and to conceive a growing dislike for him mingled with suspicion. +As for Laura, the eldest, she was like her mother, too much wrapped up +in herself to have many thoughts for any one else, and they all +regarded Zell as a mere child still. Mr. Allen, who would have been +very anxious had Zell been receiving the attentions of some penniless +young clerk or artist, laughed at her "flirtation with old Van Dam" as +an eminently safe proceeding. + +But on the present evening her sisters were too much occupied with +their own friends to give Zell or her dangerous admirer much +attention. As yet no formal engagement had bound any of them, but an +intimacy and mutual liking, tending to such a result, was rapidly +growing. + +In Edith's case the attraction of contrasts was again shown. Augustus +Elliot, the youth who had approached her with such confidence and +grace, was quite as stylish a personage as herself, and that was +saying a great deal. But every line of his full handsome face, as well +as the expression of his light blue eyes, showed that he had less +decision in the whole of his luxurious nature than she in her little +finger. Self-indulgence and good-natured vanity were unmistakably his +characteristics. To yield, not for the good of others, but because not +strong enough to stand sturdily alone, was the law of his being. If he +could ever have been kept under the influence of good and stronger +natures, who would have developed his naturally kind heart and good +impulses into something like principle, he might have had a safe and +creditable career. But he was the idol of a foolish, fashionable +mother, and the pet of two or three sisters who were empty-brained +enough to think their handsome brother the perfection of mankind; and +by eye, manner, and often the plainest words, they told him as much, +and he had at last come to believe them. Why should they not? He was +faultless in his own dress, faultless in his criticism of a lady's +dress, taking the prevailing fashion as the standard. He was perfectly +versed in the polite slang of the day. He scented afar off and +announced the slightest change in the mode, so that his elegant +sisters could appear on the avenue in advance of the other fashion- +plates. As they sailed away on a sunny afternoon in their gorgeous +plumage, the envy of many a competing belle, they would say: + +"Isn't he a duck of a brother to give us a hint of a change so early? +After all there is no eye or taste like that of man when once +perfected." + +And then they knew him to be equally _au fait_ on the flavor of wines, +the points of horses, the merits of every watering-place, and all the +other lore which in their world gave pre-eminence. They had been +educated to have no other ideal of manhood, and if an earnest, +straight forward man, with a purpose, had spoken out before them, they +would have regarded him as an uncouth monster. + +Notwithstanding all his vanity, "Gus," as he was familiarly called, +was a very weak man, and though he would not acknowledge it, even to +himself, instinctively recognized the fact. He continually attached +himself to strong, resolute natures, by whom, if they were adroit, he +could easily be made a tool of. He took a great fancy to Edith from +the first hour of their acquaintance, and she soon obtained a strong +influence over him. She instinctively detected his yielding +disposition, and liked him the better for it, while his good-nature +and abundant supply of society talk made him a general favorite. + +When every one whispered, "What a handsome couple they would make!" +and she found him so looked up to and quoted in the fashionable world, +she began to entertain quite an admiration as well as liking for him, +though she saw more and more clearly that there was nothing in him +that she could lean upon. + +Gus's parents, who knew that the Allens were immensely wealthy, urged +on the match, but Mr. Allen, aware that the Elliots were living to the +extent of their means, discouraged it, plainly telling Edith his +reasons. + +"But," said Edith, at the same time showing her heart in the practical +suggestion, "could not Gus go into business himself?" + +"The worst thing he could do," said the keen Mr. Allen. "He has tried +it a few times, I have learned, but has not one business +qualification. He could not keep himself in toothpicks. His mother and +sisters have spoiled him. He is nothing but a society man. Mr. Elliot +has not a word to say at home. His business is to make money for them +to spend, and a tough time he has to keep up with them. You girls must +marry men who can take care of you, unless you wish to support your +husbands." + +Mr. Allen's verdict was true, and Edith felt that it was. When a boy, +Gus could get out of lessons by running to his mother with a plea of +headache or any trifle, and in youth he had escaped business in like +manner. His father had tried him a few times in his office, but was +soon glad to fall in with his wife's opinion, that _her_ son "had +too much spirit and refinement for plodding humdrum business, that he +was a born gentleman and suited only to elegant leisure," and as his +gentleman son only did mischief downtown, the poor over-worked father +was glad to have him out of the way, for he with difficulty made both +ends meet, as it was. Hoping he would do better with strangers, he +had, by personal influence, procured him situations elsewhere, but +between the mother's weakness and the young man's confirmed habits of +idleness, it always ended by Gus saying to his employers: + +"I'm going of on a little trip--by-by," at which they gave a sigh of +relief. It had at last become a recognized fact that Gus must marry an +heiress, this being about the only way for so fine a gentleman to +achieve the fortune that he could not stoop to toil for. As he admired +himself complacently in the gilded mirror that ornamented his +dressing-room, he felt that a wise selection would be his only +difficulty, and though an heiress is something of a _rara avis_, +he sternly resolved to cage one with such heavy golden plumage that +even his mother, whom no one satisfied save himself, would give a sigh +of perfect content. When at last he met Edith Allen, it seemed as if +inclination might happily blend with his lofty sense of duty, and he +soon became Edith's devoted and favored attendant. And yet, as we have +seen, our heroine was not the sentimental style of girl that falls +hopelessly and helplessly in love with a man for some occult reason, +not even known to herself, and who mopes and pines till she is +permitted to marry him, be he fool, villain, or saint. Edith was fully +capable of appreciating and weighing her father's words, and under +their influence nearly decided to chill her handsome but helpless +admirer into a mere passing acquaintance; but when he next appeared +before her in his uniform, as an officer in one of the "crack" city +regiments, her eyes, taste, and vanity, and somehow her heart, so +pleaded for him that, so far from being an icicle, she smiled on him +like a July sun. + +But whenever he sought to press his suit into something definite, she +evaded and shunned the point, as only a feminine diplomatist can. In +fact, Gus, on account of his vanity, was not a very urgent suitor, as +the idea of final refusal was preposterous. He regarded himself as +virtually accepted already. Meanwhile Edith for once in her life was +playing the role of Micawber, and "waiting for something to turn up." +And something had, for this trip to Europe would put time and space +between them, and gently cure both of their folly, as she deemed it. +Folly! She did not realize that Gus regarded himself as acting on +sound business principles and a strong sense of duty, as well as +obeying the impulses of what heart he had. The sweet approval of +conscience and judgment attended his action, while both condemned her. + +As Gus approached this evening, she felt a pang of commiseration that +not only were they separated by her father's and her own disapproval, +but that soon the briny ocean would also be between them, and she was +unusually kind. She decided to play with her poor little mouse till +the last, and then let absence remedy all. Her mind was quick, if not +very profound. + +As Mr. Goulden leaned across the corner of the piano, and paid the +blushing Laura some delicate compliments, one could not but think of +an adroit financier, skilfully placing some money. There was nothing +ardent, nothing incoherent and lover-like, in his carefully modulated +tones, and nicely selected words that meant much or little, as he +might afterward decide. Mr. Goulden always knew what he was about, as +truly in a lady's boudoir as in Wall Street. The stately, elegant +Laura suited his tastes; her father's financial status _had_ suited +him also. But he, who through his agents knew all that was going on in +Wall Street, was aware that Mr. Allen had engaged in a very heavy +speculation, which, though promising well at the time, might, by some +unexpected turn of the wheel, wear a very different aspect. He would +see the game through before proceeding with his own, and in the +meantime, by judicious attention, hold Laura well in hand. + +In that brilliantly lighted parlor none of these currents and counter +currents were apparent on the surface. That was like the ripple and +sparkle of a summer sea in the sunlight. Every year teaches us +something of what is hidden under the fair but treacherous seeming of +life. + +The young ladies were now satisfied with the company they had, and the +gentlemen, as can well be understood, wished no further additions. +Therefore they agreed to retire to the library for a game of cards. + +"Hannibal," said Edith, summoning the portentous colored butler who +presided over the front door and dining-room, "if any one calls, say +we are out or engaged." + +That solemn dignitary bowed as low as his stiff white collar would +permit, but soliloquized: + +"I guess I is sumpen too black to tell a white lie, so I'se say dey is +engaged." + +As the ladies swept away, leaning heavily on the arms of their favored +gallants, he added, with a slight grin illumining the gravity of his +face, "It looks mighty like it." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SKIES DARKENING + + + +The game of cards fared indifferently, for they were all too intent on +little games of their own to give close attention. Mr. Van Dam won +when he chose, and gave the game away when he chose, but made Zell +think the skill was mainly hers. + +Still, in common parlance, they had a "good time." From such clever +men the jests and compliments were rather better than the average, and +repartee from the ruby lips that smiled upon them could not seem other +than brilliant. + +Edith soon added to the sources of enjoyment by ordering cake and +wine, for though not the eldest she seemed naturally to take the lead. + +Mr. Goulden drank sparingly. He meant that not a film should come +across his judgment. Mr. Van Dam drank freely, but he was seasoned to +more fiery potations than sherry. Not so poor Gus, who, while he could +never resist the wine, soon felt its influence. But he had sufficient +control never to go beyond the point of tipsiness that fashion allows +in the drawing-room. + +Of course through Zell's unrestrained chatter the recently made plans +soon came out. + +Adroit Mr. Van Dam turned to Zell with an expression of much pleased +surprise, exclaiming: + +"How fortunate I am! I had completed my plans to go abroad some little +time since." + +Zell clapped her hands with delight, but an involuntary shadow +darkened. Edith's face. + +Gus looked nonplussed. He knew that his father and mother with +difficulty kept pace with his home expenses and that a Continental +tour was impossible for him. Mr. Goulden looked a little thoughtful, +as if a new element had entered into the problem. + +"Oh, come," laughed Zell. "Let us all be good, and go on a pilgrimage +together to Paris--I mean Jerusalem." + +"I will worship devoutly with you at either shrine," said Mr. Van Dam. + +"And with equal sincerity, I suppose," said Edith, rather coldly. + +"I sadly fear, Miss Edith, that my sincerity will not be superior to +that of the other devotees," was the keen retort, in blandest tones. + +Edith bit her lip, but said gayly, "Count me out of your pilgrim band. +I want no shrine with relics of the past. I wish no incense rising +about me obscuring the view. I like the present, and wish to see what +is beyond." + +"But suppose you are both shrine and divinity yourself?" said Gus, +with what he meant for a killing look. + +"Do you mean that compliment for me?" asked Edith, all sweetness. + +Between wine and love Gus was inclined to be sentimental, and so in a +low, meaning tone answered: + +"Who more deserving?" + +Edith's eyes twinkled a moment, but with a half sigh she replied: + +"I fear you read my character rightly. A shrine suggests many +offerings, and a divinity many worshippers." + +Zell laughed outright, and said, "In that respect all women would be +shrines and divinities if they could." + +Van Dam and Goulden could not suppress a smile at the unfortunate +issue of Elliot's sentiment, while the latter glanced keenly to see +how much truth was hinted in the badinage. + +"For my part," said Laura, looking fixedly at nothing, "I would rather +have one true devotee than a thousand pilgrims who were _gushing_ at +every shrine they met." + +"Brava!" cried Mr. Goulden. "That was the keenest arrow yet flown;" +for the other two men were notorious flirts. + +"I do not think so. Its point was much too broad," said Zell, with a +meaning look at Mr. Goulden, that brought a faint color into his +imperturbable face, and an angry flush to Laura's. + +A disconcerted manner had shown that even Gus's vanity had not been +impervious to Edith's barb, but he had now recovered himself, and +ventured again: + +"I would have my divinity a patron saint sufficiently human to pity +human weakness, and so come at last to listen to no other prayer than +mine." + +"Surely, Mr. Elliot, you would wish your saint to listen for some +other reason than your weakness only," said Edith. + +"Come, ladies and gentlemen, I move this party breaks up, or some one +will get hurt," said Gus, with a half-vexed laugh. + +"What is the matter?" asked Edith innocently. + +"Yes," echoed Zell, rising, "what is the matter with _you_, Mr. Van +Dam? Are you asleep, that you are so quiet? Tell us about your +divinity." + +"I am an astronomer and fire-worshipper, somewhat dazzled at present +by the nearness and brilliancy of my bright luminary." + +"Nonsense! your sight is failing, and you have mistaken a will-o'-the- +wisp for the sun. + +"'Dancing here, dancing there, Catch it if you can and dare,'" +and she flitted away before him. + +He followed with his intent eyes and graceful, serpent-like gliding, +knowing her to be under a spell that would soon bring her fluttering +back. + +After circling round him a few moments she took his arm and he +commenced breathing into her ear the poison of his passion. + +No woman could remain the same after being with Mr. Van Dam. Out of +the evil abundance of his heart he spoke, but the venom of his words +and manner were all the more deadly because so subtle, so minutely and +delicately distributed, that it was like a pestilential atmosphere, in +which truth and purity withered. + +No parent should permit to his daughters the companionship of a +thoroughly bad man, whatever his social standing. His very tone and +glance are unconsciously demoralizing, and, even if he tries, he +cannot prevent the bitter waters overflowing from their bad source, +his heart. + +Mr. Van Dam did not try. He meant to secure Zell, with or without her +father's approval, believing that when the marriage was once +consummated Mr. Allen's consent and money would follow eventually. + +For some little time longer the young ladies and their favored +attendants strolled about the room in quiet tete-a-tete, and then the +gentlemen bowed themselves out. + +The door-bell had rung several times during the evening, but Hannibal, +with the solemnity of a funeral, had quenched each comer by saying +with the decision of the voice of fate: + +"De ladies am engaged, sah," and no Cerberus at the door, or mailed +warder of the middle ages, could have proved such an effectual barrier +against all intruders as this old negro in his white waistcoat and +stiff necktie, backed by the usage of modern society. Indeed, in some +respects he was a greater potentate than old King Canute, for he could +say to the human passions, inclinations, and desires that surged up to +Mr. Allen's front door, "Thus far and no farther." + +But upon this evening there was a caller who looked with cool, +undaunted eyes upon the stiff necktie and solemn visage rising above +it, and to Hannibal's reiterated statement, "Dey _am_ engaged," +replied in a quiet tone of command: + +"Take that card to Miss Edith." + +Even Hannibal's sovereignty broke down before this persistent, +imperturbable visitor, and scratching his head with a perplexed grin +he half soliloquized, half replied: + +"Miss Edith mighty 'ticlar to hab her orders obeyed." + +"I am the best judge in this case," was the decisive response. "You +take the card and I will be responsible." + +Hannibal came to the conclusion that for some occult reason the +gentleman, who was well known to him, had a right to pronounce the +"open sesame" where the portal had been remained closed to all others, +and, being a diplomatist, resolved to know more fully the quarter of +the wind before assuming too much. But his statecraft was sorely +puzzled to know why one of Mr. Allen's under-clerks should suddenly +appear in the role of social caller upon the young ladies, for Mr. +Fox, the gentleman in question, ostensibly had no higher position. His +appearance and manner indicated a mystery. Old Hannibal's wool had not +grown white for nothing, and he was the last man in the world to go +through a mystery as a blundering bumblebee would through a spider's +web. He was for leaving the web all intact till he knew who spun it +and whom it was to catch. If it was Mr. Allen's work or Miss Edith's, +it _must_ stand; if not, he could play bumblebee with a vengeance, and +carry off the gossamer of intrigue with one sweep. + +So, showing Mr. Fox into a small reception room, he made his way to +the library door with a motion that would have reminded you of a +great, stealthy cat, and called in a loud, impressive whisper: + +"Miss Edith!" + +Edith at once rose and went to him, knowing that her prime minister +had some important question of state to present when summoning her in +that tone. + +Screened by the library door, Hannibal commenced in a deprecating way: + +"I told Mr. Fox you'se engaged, but he say I must give you dis card. +He kinder acted as if he own dis niggar and de whole establishment." + +A sudden heavy frown drew Edith's dark eyebrows together and she said +loud enough for Mr. Fox in his ambush to hear: + +"Was there ever such impudence!" and straightway the frown passed to +the listener, intensified, like a flying cloud darkening one spot now +and another a moment later. + +"Return the card, and say I am engaged," she said haughtily. "Stay," +she added thoughtfully. "Perhaps he wished to see papa, or there is +some important business matter which needs immediate attention. If +not, dismiss him," and Edith returned to the library quite as much +puzzled as Hannibal had been. Two or three times recently she had +found Mr. Fox's card on returning from evenings out. Why had he +called? She had only a cool, bowing acquaintance with him, formed by +his coming occasionally to see her father on business, and her father +had not thought it worth while to formally introduce Mr. Fox to any of +his family at such times, but had treated him as a sort of upper +servant. Her certainly was putting on strange airs, as her old grand- +vizier had intimated. But in the game of cards, and her other little +game with Grus, she soon forgot his existence. + +Meantime Hannibal, reassured, was regal again, and marched down the +marble hall with something like the feeling and bearing of his great +namesake. If there were a web here, the Allens were not spinning it, +and he owed. Mr. Fox nothing but a slight grudge for his "airs." + +Therefore with the manner of one feeling himself master of the +situation he said: + +"Hab you a message for Mr. Allen?" + +"No," replied Mr. Fox quietly. + +"Den I tell you again Miss Edith _am_ engaged." + +Looking straight into Hannibal's eyes, without a muscle changing in +his impassive face, Mr. Fox said in the steady tone of command: + +"Say to Miss Edith I will call again," and he passed out of the door +as if _he_ were master of the situation. + +Hannibal rolled up his eyes till nothing but the whites were seen, and +muttered: + +"Brass ain't no name for it." + +Mr. Fox's action can soon be explained. Mr. Allen, while accustomed to +operate largely in Wall Street through his brokers, was also the head +of a cloth-importing firm. This in fact had been his regular and +legitimate business, but like so many others he had been drawn into +the vortex of speculation, and after many lucky hits had acquired that +overweening confidence that prepares the way for a fall. He came to +believe that he had only to put his hand to a thing to give it the +needful impulse to success. In his larger and more exciting operations +in Wall Street he had left the cloth business mainly to his junior +partners and dependants, they employing his capital. Mr. Fox was +merely a clerk in this establishment, and not in very high standing +either. He was also another unwholesome product of metropolitan life. +As office boy among the lawyers, as a hanger-on of the criminal +courts, he had scrambled into a certain kind of legal knowledge and +had gained a small pettifogging practice when an opening in Mr. +Allen's business led to his present connection. Mr. Allen felt that in +his varied and extended business he needed a man of Mr. Fox's stamp to +deal with the legal questions that came up, look after the intricacies +of the revenue laws, and manage the immaculate saints of the custom- +house. As far as the firm had dirty, disagreeable, perplexing work to +do, Mr. Fox was to do it. Whenever it came in contact with the majesty +of the law and government, Mr. Fox was to represent it. Whenever some +Israelite in whom _was_ guile sought, on varied pretext, to wriggle +out of the whole or part of a bill, the wary Mr. Fox met him on his +own plane and with his own weapons, skirmished with him, and won the +little fight. + +I would not for a moment give the impression that Mr. Allen was in +favor of sharp practice. He merely wished to conduct his business on +the business principles and practice of the day, and it was not his +purpose, and certainly not his policy, to pass beyond the law. But +even the judges disagree as to what the law is, and he was dealing +with many who thrived by evading it; therefore the need of a nimble +Mr. Fox who could burrow and double on his tracks with the best of +them. All went well for years, and the firm was saved many an +annoyance, many a loss, and if this guerilla of the house, as perhaps +we may term him, had been as devoted to Mr. Allen's interests as to +his own, all might have gone well to the end. But these very sharp +tools are apt to cut both ways, and so it turned out in this case. The +astute Mr. Fox determined to serve Mr. Allen faithfully as long as he +could faithfully and pre-eminently serve himself. If he who had +scrambled from the streets to his present place of power could reach a +higher position by stepping on the great rich merchant, such power +would have additional satisfaction. He was as keen-scented after money +as Mr. Allen, only the latter hunted like a lion, and the former like +a fox. He mastered Mr. Allen's business thoroughly in all its details. +Until recently no opportunity had occurred save work which, though +useful, caused him to be half-despised by the others who would not or +could not do it. But of late he had gained a strong vantage point. He +watched with intense interest Mr. Allen's attraction toward, and +entrance upon, a speculation that he knew to be as uncertain of issue +as it was large in proportions, for, if the case ever became critical, +he was conscious of the power of introducing a very important element +into the problem. + +In his care of the custom-house business he had discovered technical +violations of the revenue laws which already involved the loss to the +firm of a million dollars, and, with his peculiar loyalty to himself, +thought this knowledge ought to be worth a great deal. As Mr. Allen +went down into the deep waters of Wall Street, he saw that it might +be. In saving his employer from wreck he might virtually become +captain of the ship. + +After this brief delineation of character, it would strike the reader +as very incongruous to say that Mr. Fox had fallen in love with Edith. +Mr. Fox never stumbled or fell. He could slide down and scramble up to +any extent, and when cornered could take a flying leap like that of a +cat. But he had been greatly impressed by Edith's beauty, and to win +her also would be an additional and piquant feature in the game. He +had absolute confidence in money, much of which he might have gained +from Mr. Allen himself. He knew a million of her father's money was in +his power, and this, in a certain sense, placed him in the position of +a suitor worth a million, and such he knew to be almost omnipotent on +the avenue. If this money could also be the means of causing Mr. +Allen's ruin, or saving him from it, he believed that Edith would be +his as truly as the bonds and certificates of stock that he often +counted and gloated over. Even before Mr. Allen entered on what he +called his great and final operation for the present, Mr. Fox was half +inclined to show his hand and make the most of it, but within the last +few days he had learned that perhaps a greater opportunity was opening +before him. Meantime in the full consciousness of power he had begun +to call on Edith, as we have seen, something as a cat plays around and +watches a caged bird, which it expects to have in its claws before +long. + +The next morning at breakfast Edith mentioned Mr. Fox's recent calls. + +"What is he coming here for?" growled Mr. Allen, looking with a frown +at his daughter. + +"I'm sure I don't know." + +"I hope you don't see him." + +"Certainly not. I was out the first two times, and last night sent +word that I was engaged. But he insisted on his card being given to me +and put on airs generally, so Hannibal seems to think." + +That dignitary gave a confirming and indignant grunt. + +"He said he would call again, didn't he, Hannibal?" + +"Yes'm," blurted Hannibal, "and he looked as if de next time he'd put +us all in his breeches pocket and carry us off." + +"What's Fox up to now?" muttered Mr. Allen, knitting his brows. "I +must look into this." + +But even within a few hours the cloud land of Wall Street had changed +some of its aspects. The serenity of the preceding day was giving +place to indications of a disturbance in the financial atmosphere. He +had to buy more stock to keep the control he was gaining on the +market, and things were not shaping favorably for its rise. He was +already carrying a tremendous load, and even his herculean shoulders +began to feel the burden. In the press and rush of business he forgot +about Fox's social ambition in venturing to call where such men as Van +Dam and Gus Elliot had undisputed rights. + +Those upon whom society lays its hands are orthodox of course. + +The wary Fox was watching the stock market as closely as Mr. Allen, +and chuckled over the aspect of affairs; and he concluded to keep +quietly out of the way a little longer, and await further +developments. + +Things moved rapidly as they usually do in the maelstrom of +speculation. Though Mr. Allen was a trained athlete in business, the +strain upon him grew greater day by day. But true to his promise, and +in accordance with his habit of promptness, he transferred the deed +for the little place in the country to Edith, who gloated over its dry +technicalities as if they were full of romantic hope and suggestion to +her. + +One day when alone with Laura, Mr. Allen asked her suddenly: + +"Has Mr. Goulden made any formal proposal yet?" + +With rising color Laura answered: + +"No." + +"Why not? He seems very slow about it." + +"I hardly know how you expect me to reply to such a question," said +Laura, a little haughtily. + +"Is he as attentive as ever?" + +"Yes, I suppose so, though he has not called quite so often of late." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Allen meditatively, adding after a moment, +"Can't you make him speak out?" + +"You certainly don't mean me to propose to him?" asked Laura, +reddening. + +"No, no, no!" said her father with some irritation, "but any clever +woman can make a man who has gone as far as Mr. Goulden commit himself +whenever she chooses. Your mother would have had the thing settled +long ago, or else would have enjoyed the pleasure of refusing him." + +"I am not mistress of that kind of finesse," said Laura coldly. + +"You are a woman," replied her father coolly, "and don't need any +lessons. It would be well for us both if you would exert your native +power in this case." + +Laura glanced keenly at her father and asked quickly: + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just what I say. A word to the wise is sufficient." + +Having thus indicated to his daughter that phase of Wall Street +tactics and principles that could be developed on the avenue, he took +himself off to the central point of operations. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE STORM THREATENING + + + +Laura had a better motive than that suggested by her father for +wishing to lead Mr. Goulden to commit himself, for as far as she could +love any one beyond herself she loved him, and she also realized fully +that he could continue to her all that her elegant and expensive +tastes craved. Notwithstanding her show of maidenly pride and reserve, +she was ready enough to do as she had been bidden. Mr. Allen guessed +as much. Indeed, as was quite natural, his wife was the type of the +average woman to his mind, only he believed that she was a little +cleverer in these matters than the majority. The manner in which she +had "hooked" him made a deep and lasting impression on his memory. + +But Mr. Goulden was a wary fish. He had no objection to being hooked +if the conditions were all right, and until satisfied as to these he +would play around at a safe distance. As he saw Mr. Allen daily +getting into deeper water, he grew more cautious. His calls were not +quite so frequent. He managed never to be with Laura except in company +with others, and while his manner was very complimentary it was never +exactly lover-like. Therefore, all Laura's feminine diplomacy was in +vain, and that which a woman can say frankly the moment a man speaks, +she could scarcely hint. Moreover, Mr. Goulden was adroit enough to +chill her heart while he flattered her vanity. There was something +about his manner she could not understand, but it was impossible to +take offence at the polished gentleman. + +Her father understood him better. He saw that Mr. Goulden had resolved +to settle the question on financial principles only. + +As the chances diminished of securing him indirectly through Laura as +a prop to his tottering fortunes, he at last came to the conclusion to +try to interest him directly in his speculation, feeling sure if he +could control only a part of Mr. Goulden's large means and credit, he +could carry his operation through successfully. + +Mr. Goulden warily listened to the scheme, warily weighed it, and +concluded within the brief compass of Mr. Allen's explanation to have +nothing to do with it. But his outward manner was all deference and +courteous attention. + +At the end of Mr. Allen's rather eager and rose-colored statements, he +replied in politest and most regretful tones that he "was very sorry +he could not avail himself of so promising an opening, but in fact, he +was 'in deep' himself--carrying all he could stand up under very well, +and was rather in the borrowing than in the lending line at present." + +Keen Mr. Allen saw through all this in a moment, and his face flushed +angrily in spite of his efforts at self-control. Muttering something +to the effect: + +"I thought I would give you a chance to make a good thing," he bade a +rather abrupt "good-morning." + +As the pressure grew heavier upon him he was led to do a thing the +suggestion of which a few weeks previously he would have regarded as +an insult. Mrs. Allen had a snug little property of her own, which had +been secured to her on first mortgages, and in bonds that were quiet +and safe. These her husband held in trust for her, and now pledged +them as collateral on which to borrow money to carry through his +gigantic operation. In respect to part of this transaction, Mrs. Allen +was obliged to sign a paper which might have revealed to her the +danger involved, but she languidly took the pen, yawned, and signed +away the result of her father's long years of toil without reading a +line. + +"There," she said, "I hope you will not bother me about business +again. Now in regard to this party--" and she was about to enter into +an eager discussion of all the complicated details, when her husband, +interrupting, said: + +"Another time, my dear--I am very much pressed by business at +present." + +"Oh, business, nothing but business," whined his wife. "You never have +time to attend to me or your family." + +But Mr. Allen was out of hearing of the querulous tones before the +sentence was finished. + +Of course he never meant that his wife should lose a cent, and to +satisfy his conscience, and impressed by his danger, he resolved that +as soon as he was out of this quaking morass of speculation he would +settle on his wife and each daughter enough to secure them in wealth +through life, and arrange it in such a way that no one could touch the +principal. + +The large sum that he now secured eased up matters and helped him +greatly, and affairs began to wear a brightening aspect. He felt sure +that the stock he had invested in was destined to rise in time, and +indeed it already gave evidences of buoyancy. He noticed with an +inward chuckle that Mr. Goulden began to call a little oftener. He was +the best financial barometer in Wall Street. + +But the case would require the most adroit and delicate management for +weeks still, and this Mr. Allen could have given. Success also +depended on a favorable state of the money market, and a good degree +of stability and quietness throughout the financial world. Political +changes in Europe, a war in Asia, heavy failures in Liverpool, London, +or Paris, might easily spoil all. Reducing Mr. Allen's vast +complicated operation to its final analysis, he had simply bet several +millions--all he had--that nothing would happen throughout the world +that could interfere with a scheme so problematical that the chances +could scarcely be called even. + +But gambling is occasionally successful, and it began to look as if +Mr. Allen would win his bet; and so he might had nothing happened. The +world was quiet enough, remarkably quiet, considering the +superabundance of explosive elements everywhere. + +The financial centres seethed on as usual, like a witch's caldron, but +there were no infernal ebullitions in the form of "Black Fridays." The +storm that threatened to wreck Mr. Allen was no wide, sweeping +tempest, but rather one of those little local whirlwinds that +sometimes in the west destroy a farm or township. + +For the last few weeks Mr. Fox had quietly watched the game, matured +his plans, and secured his proof in the best legal form. He now +concluded it was time to act, as he believed Mr. Allen to be in his +power. So one morning he coolly walked into that gentleman's office, +closed the door, and took a seat. Mr. Allen looked up with an +expression of surprise and annoyance on his face. He instinctively +disliked Mr. Fox, as a lion might be irritated by a cat, and the +instinctive enmity was all the stronger because of a certain family +likeness. But Mr. Allen's astuteness had nothing mean or cringing in +it, while Mr. Fox heretofore had been a sort of Uriah Heep to him. +Therefore his surprise and annoyance at his new role of cool +confidence. + +"Well, sir," said he, rather impatiently, returning to his writing, as +a broad hint that communications must be brief if made at all. + +"Mr. Allen," said Mr. Fox, in that clear-cut, decisive tone, that +betokens resolute purpose, and a little anger also "I must request you +to give me your undivided attention for a little time, and surely what +I am about to say is important enough to make it worth the while." + +Though Mr. Allen flushed angrily, he knew that his clerk would not +employ such a tone and manner without reason, so he raised his head +and looked steadily at his unwelcome visitor and again said briefly: + +"Well, sir?" + +"I wish, in the first place," said Mr. Fox, thinking to begin with the +least important exaction, and gradually reach, a climax in his +extortion, "I wish permission to pay my addresses to your daughter +Miss Edith." + +Knowing nothing of a father's pride and affection, he had unwittingly +brought in the climax first. + +The angry flush deepened on Mr. Allen's face, but he still managed to +control himself, and to remember that the father of three pretty +daughters must expect some scenes like these, and that the only thing +to do was to get rid of the objectionable suitors as civilly as +possible. He was also too much of an American to put on any of the +high-stepping airs of the European aristocracy. Here it is simply one +sovereign proposing for the daughter of another, and generally the +young people practically arrange it all before asking any consent in +the case. After all, Mr. Fox had only paid his daughter the highest +compliment in his power, and if any other of his clerks had made a +similar request he would probably have given as kind and delicate a +refusal as possible. It was because he disliked Mr. Fox, and +instinctively gauged his character, that he said with a short, dry +laugh: + +"Come, Mr. Fox, you are forgetting yourself. You have been a useful +employe" in my store. If you feel that you should have more salary, +name what will satisfy you, and I will consult my partners, and try +and arrange it."--"There," thought he, "if he can't take that hint as +to his place, I shall have to give him a kick." But both surprise and +anger began to get the better of him when Mr. Fox replied: + +"I must really beg your closer attention; I said nothing of increased +salary. You will soon see that is no object with me now. I asked your +permission to pay my addresses to your daughter." + +"I decline to give it," said Mr. Allen, harshly, "and if I hear any +more of this nonsense I will discharge you from my employ." + +"Why?" was the quiet response, yet spoken with the intensity of +passion. + +"Because I never would permit my daughter to marry a man in your +circumstances, and, if you will have it, you are not the style of a +man I would wish to take into my family." + +"If a man who was worth a million asked for your daughter's hand would +you answer him in this manner?" + +"Perhaps not," said Mr. Allen, with another of his short, dry laughs, +which expressed little save irritation, "but you have my answer as +respects yourself." + +"I am not so sure of that," was the bold retort. "I am practically +worth a million--indeed several millions to you, as you are now +situated. You have talked long enough in the dark, Mr. Allen. For some +time back there have been in your importations violations of the +revenue laws. I have only to give the facts in my possession to the +proper authorities and the government would legally claim from you a +million of dollars, of which I should get half. So you see that I am +positively worth five hundred thousand, and to you I am worth a +million with respect to this item alone." + +Mr. Allen sprang excitedly to his feet. Mr. Fox coolly got up and +edged toward the door, which he had purposely left unlatched. + +"Moreover," continued Mr. Fox, in his hard metallic voice, "in view of +your other operations in Wall Street, which I know all about, the loss +of a million would involve the loss of all you have." + +Mr. Fox now had his hand on the door-knob, and Mr. Allen was glaring +at him as if purposing to rush upon him and rend him to pieces. + +Standing in the passageway, Mr. Fox concluded, in a low, meaning tone: + +"You had better make terms with me within twenty-four hours." + +And the door closed sharply, reminding one of the shutting of a steel +trap. + +Mr. Allen sank suddenly back in his chair and stared at the closed +door, looking as if he were a prisoner and all escape cut off. + +He seemed to be in a lethargy or under a partial paralysis; he slowly +and weakly rubbed his head with his hand, as if vaguely conscious that +the trouble was there. + +Gradually the stupor began to pass off, his blood to circulate, and +his mind to realize the situation. + +Rising feebly, as if a sudden age had fallen, on him, he went to the +door and gave orders that he must not be disturbed, and then sat down +to think. Half an hour later he sent for his lawyer, stated the case +to him, enjoined secrecy, and asked him to see Fox, hoping that it +might be a case of mere blackmailing bravado. Keen as Mr. Allen's +lawyer was, he had more than his match in the astute Mr. Fox. Moreover +the latter had everything in his favor. There had been a slight +infringement of the revenue laws, and though involving but small loss +to the government, the consequences were the same. The invoice would +be confiscated as soon as the facts were known. Mr. Fox had secured +ample proof of this. + +Mr. Allen might be able to prove that there was no intention to +violate the law, as indeed there had not been. In fact, he had left +those matters to his subordinates, and they had been a little +careless, averaging matters, contenting themselves with complying with +the general intent of the law, rather than, with painstaking care, +conforming to its letter. Bat the law is very matter-of-fact, and can +be excessively literal when money is to be made by those who live by +enforcing or evading it, as may suit them. Mr. Fox could carry his +case, if he pressed it, and secure his share of the plunder. On +account of a very slight loss, Mr. Allen might be compelled to lose a +million. + +Before the day's decline the lawyer had asked Mr. Fox to take no +further steps, stating vaguely that Mr. Allen would look into the +matter, and would not be unreasonable. + +A sardonic grin gave a momentary lurid hue to Mr. Fox's sallow face. +Knowing the game to be in his own hands, he could quietly bide his +time; so, assuming a tone of much moderation and dignity, he replied, +he had no wish to be hard, and could be reasonable also. "But," added +he, in a meaning tone, "there must be no double work in this matter. +Mr. Allen must see what I am worth to him--nothing could be plainer. +His best policy now is to act promptly and liberally toward me, for I +pledge you my word that if I see any disposition to evade my +requirements I will blow out the bottom of everything," and a snaky +glitter in his small black eyes showed how remorselessly he could +scuttle the ship bearing Mr. Allen's fortunes. + +A speedy investigation showed Mr. Fox's fatal power, and Mr. Allen's +partners were for paying him off, but when they found that he exacted +an interest in the business that quite threw them into the background, +they were indignant and inclined to fight it out. Mr. Allen could not +tell them that he was in no condition to fight. If his financial +status had been the same as some weeks previously, he would rather +have lost the million than have listened one moment to Mr. Fox's +repulsive conditions, but now to risk litigation and commercial +reputation on one hand, and total ruin on the other, was an abyss from +which he shrank back appalled. + +His only resource was to temporize, both with his partners and Mr. +Fox, and so gain time, hoping that the Wall Street scheme, that had +caused so much evil, might also cure it. Of course he could not tell +his partners how he was situated. The slightest breath of suspicion +might cause the evenly balanced scales in which hung all chances to +hopelessly decline. The speculation now promised well. + +If he could only keep things quiet a little longer-- + +Edith must help him. Calling her into the library after dinner, he +asked: + +"Has Mr. Fox called lately?" + +"No, sir, not for some little time." + +"Will you oblige me by seeing him and being civil if he calls again?" +"Why, papa, I thought you did not wish me to see him." + +"Circumstances have altered since then. Is he very disagreeable to +you?" + +"Well, papa, I have scarcely thought of him, but to tell you the truth +when he has been here on business I have involuntarily thought of a +mousing cat, or the animal he is named after on the scent of a hen- +roost. But of course I can be civil or even polite to him if you wish +it." + +A spasm of pain crossed her father's face and he put his hand hastily +to his head, a frequent act of late. He rose and took a few turns up +and down the room, muttering: + +"Curse it all, I must tell her. Half knowledge is always dangerous, +and is sure to lead to blunders, and there must be no blunders now." + +Stopping abruptly before his daughter, he said, "He has proposed for +your hand." + +An expression of disgust flitted across Edith's face, and she replied +quickly: + +"We both have surely but one answer to such a proposition from +_him_." + +"Edith, you seem to have more sense in regard to business and such +matters than most young ladies. I must now test you, and it is for you +to show whether you are a woman or a shallow-brained girl. I am sorry +to tell you these things. They are not suited to your age or sex, but +there is no help for it," and he explained how he was situated. + +Edith listened with paling cheek, dilating eyes, and parting lips, but +still with rising courage and a growing purpose to help her father. + +"I do not wish you to marry this villain," he continued. "Heaven +forbid!" (Not that Mr. Allen referred this or any other matter to +Heaven; it was only a strong way of expressing his own disapproval.) +"But we must manage to temporize and keep this man at bay till I can +extricate myself from my difficulties. As soon as I stand on firm +ground I will defy him." + +To Edith, with her standard of morality, the course indicated by her +father seemed eminently filial and praiseworthy. The thought of +marrying Mr. Fox made her flesh creep, but a brief flirtation was +another affair. She had flirted not a little in her day for the mere +amusement of the thing, and with the motives her father had presented +she could do it in this case as if it were an act of devotion. Of the +pure and lofty morality of the Bible she had as little idea as a +Persian houri, and rugged Roman virtue could not develop in the social +atmosphere in which the Allens lived. It was with a clear conscience +that she resolved to beguile Mr. Fox, and signified as much to her +father. + +"Play him off," said this model father, "as Mr. Goulden does Laura. +Curse him!--how I would like to slam the front door in his face. But +my time may come yet," he added with set teeth. + +That morning Mr. Allen sent for Mr. Fox, as he dared brave him no +longer without some definite show of yielding, in order to keep back +his fatal disclosures. With a dignity and formality scarcely in +keeping with his fear and the import of his words, he said: + +"I have considered your statements, sir, and admit their weight. As I +informed you through my lawyer, I wish to be reasonable and hope you +intend to be the same, for these are very grave matters. In regard to +my daughter, you have my permission to call upon her as do her other +gentleman friends, and she will receive you. In this land, that is all +the vantage-ground a _gentleman_ asks, as indeed it is all that can be +granted. I am not the King of Dahomey or the Shah of Persia, and able +to give my daughters where interest may dictate. A lady's inclination +must be consulted. But I give you the permission you ask; you may pay +your addresses to my daughter. You could scarcely ask a father to say +more." + +"It matters little to me what you or others say, but much what they +do. My action shall be based upon yours and Miss Edith's. I have +learned in your employ the value of promptness in all business +matters. I hope you understand me." + +"I do, sir, but there can be no indecent haste in these matters. In +gaining the important position--in assuming the relations you desire-- +there should be some show of dignity, otherwise society would be +disgusted, and you would lose the respect which should follow such +vast acquirements." + +"Where I can secure the whole cloth, I shall not worry about the +selvage of etiquette and passing opinion," was Mr. Fox's cynical +reply. + +Mr. Allen could not prevent an expression of intense disgust from +coming out upon his face, and he replied with some heat: + +"Well, sir, something is due to my own position, and I cannot treat my +daughter like a bale of cloth, as you suggest in your figurative +speech. However," he added, warily, "I will take the necessary steps +as soon as possible, and will trespass upon your time no longer." + +As Mr. Fox glided out of the office with his sardonic smile, Mr. Allen +felt for the moment that he would rather become bankrupt than make +terms with him. + +Meanwhile the month of February was rapidly passing, though each day +was an age of anxiety and suspense to Mr. Allen. The tension was too +much for him, and he evidently aged and failed under it. He drank more +than he ate, and his temper was very variable. From his wife he only +received chidings and complaints that in his horrid "mania for +business" he was neglecting her and his family in general. She could +never get him to sit down and talk sensibly of the birthday and debut +party that was now so near. He would always say, testily, "Manage it +to suit yourselves." + +Laura and Zell were too much wrapped up in their own affairs to give +much thought to anything else. But Edith, of late, understood her +father and felt deeply for him. One evening finding him sitting +dejectedly alone in the library after dinner, she said: + +"Why go on with this party, papa? I am sure I am ready to give it up +if it will be any relief to you." + +The heart of this strong, confident man of the world was sore and +lonely. For perhaps the first time he felt the need of support and +sympathy. He drew his beautiful daughter, whom thus far he had +scarcely more than admired, down upon his lap and buried his face upon +her shoulder. A breath of divine impulse swept aside for a moment the +stifling curtains of his sordid life, and he caught a glimpse of the +large happy realm of love. + +"And would you really give up anything for the sake of your old +father?" he asked in a low tone. + +"Everything," cried Edith, much moved by the unusual display of +affection and feeling on the part of her father. + +"The others would not," said he bitterly. + +"Indeed, papa, I think they would if they only knew. We would all do +anything to see you your old jovial self again. Give up this wretched +struggle; tell Mr. Fox to do his worst. I am not afraid of being poor; +I am sure we could work up again." + +"You know nothing about poverty," sighed her father. "When you are +down, the world that bowed at your feet will run over and trample on +you. I have seen it so often, but never thought of danger to me and +mine." + +"But this party," said the practical Edith, "why not give this up? It +will cost a great deal." + +"By no means give it up," said her father. "It may help me very much. +My credit is everything now. The appearance of wealth which such, a +display insures will do much to secure the wealth. I am watched day +and night, and must show no sign of weakness. Go on with the party and +make it as brilliant as possible. If I fail, two or three thousand +will make no difference, and it may help me to succeed. Whatever +strengthens my credit for the next few days is everything to me. My +stock is rising, only it is too slow. Things look better--if I could +only gain time. But I am very uneasy--my head troubles me," and he put +his hand to his head, and Edith remembered how often, she had seen him +do that of late. + +"By the way," said he, abruptly, "tell me how you get on with Mr. +Fox." + +"Oh, never mind about that now; do rest a little, mind and body." + +"No, tell me," said her father sharply, showing how little control he +had over himself. + +"Well, I think I have beaten him so far. He is very demonstrative, and +acts as if I belonged to him. Did I not manage to always meet him in +company with others, he would come at once to an open declaration. As +it is, I cannot prevent it much longer. He is coming this evening, and +I fear he will press matters. He seems to think that the asking is a +mere form, and that our extremity will leave no choice." + +"You must avoid him a little longer. Come, we will go to the theatre, +and then you might be sick for a few days." + +In a few minutes they were off, and were scarcely well away when Mr. +Fox, dressed in more style than he could carry gracefully, appeared. + +"Miss Edith am out," said Hannibal loftily. + +"I half believe you lie," muttered Mr. Fox, looking very black. + +"Sarch de house, sah. It am a berry gentlemanly proceeding." + +"Where has she gone? and whom did she go with?" + +"I hab no orders to say," said Hannibal, looking fixedly at the +ceiling of the vestibule. + +The knightly suitor turned on his heel, muttering, "They are playing +me false." + +'Twas a pity, and he so true. + +The next day Edith was sick and Mr. Allen's stock was rising. Hannibal +again sent Mr. Fox baffled away, but with a dangerous gleam in his +eyes. + +On the following morning Mr. Allen found a note on his desk. His face +grew livid as he read it, and he often put his hand to his head. He +sat down and wrote to this effect, however: + +"I am arranging the partnership matter as rapidly as possible. In +regard to my daughter you will ruin all if you show no more +discretion. I cannot compel her to marry you. You may make it +impossible to influence her in your favor. You have been well +received. What more can you ask? A matter of this kind must be +arranged delicately." + +Mr. Fox pondered over this with a peculiarly foxy expression. "It +sounds plausible. If I only thought he was true," soliloquized this +embodiment of truth. + +Mr. Allen's stock was higher, and Mr. Fox watched the rise grimly, but +he saw Edith, who was all smiles and graciousness, and gave him a +verbal invitation to her birthday-party which was to take place early +in the following week. + +The fellow had not a little vanity, and was insnared, his suspicions +quieted for the time. Valuing money himself supremely, it seemed most +rational that father and daughter should regard him as the most +eligible young man in the city. + +Edith's friends, and Gus in particular, were rather astonished at the +new-comer. Laura was frigid and remonstrant, Zell and Mr. Van Dam +satirical, but Edith wilfully tossed her head and said he was clever +and well off, and she liked him well enough to talk to him a little. +Society had made her a good actress. Meanwhile on the Tuesday +following (and this was Friday) the long expected party would take +place. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WRECK + + + +On Saturday Mr. Allen's stock was rising, and he ventured to sell a +little in a quiet way. If he "unloaded" rapidly and openly, he would +break down the market. + +Mr. Fox watched events uneasily. Mr. Goulden grew genial and more +pronounced in his attentions. Gus, on Saturday, showed almost as much +solicitude for a decisively favorable answer as did Mr. Fox, if the +language of his eyes meant anything; but Edith played him and Mr. Fox +off against each other so adroitly that they were learning to hate +each other as cordially as they agreed in admiring her. Though she +inclined in her favor to Mr. Fox, he was suspicious from nature, and +annoyed at never being able to see her alone. + +As before, they were at cards together in the library, and Edith went +for a moment into the parlor to get something. With the excuse of +obtaining it for her, Mr. Fox followed, and the moment they were alone +he seized her hand and pressed a kiss upon it. An angry flush came +into her face, but by a great effort she so far controlled herself as +to put her finger to her lips and point to the library, as if her +chief anxiety was that the attention of its occupants should not be +excited. Mr. Fox was delighted, though the angry flush was a little +puzzling. But if Edith permitted that she would permit more, and if +her only shrinking was lest others should see and know at present, +that could soon be overcome. These thoughts passed through his mind +while the incensed girl hastily obtained what she wished. But she, +feeling that her cheeks were too hot to return immediately to the +critical eyes in the library, passed out through the front parlor, +that she might have time to be herself again when she appeared. On +what little links destiny sometimes hangs! + +That which changed all her future and that of others--that involving +life and death--occurred in the half moment occupied in her passing +out of the front parlor. The consequences she would feel most keenly, +terribly indeed at times, though she might never guess the cause. Her +act was a simple, natural one under the circumstances, and yet it told +Mr. Fox, in his cat-like watchfulness, that with all his cunning he +was being made a fool of. The moment Edith had passed around the +sliding door and thought herself unobserved, an expression of intense +disgust came out upon her expressive face, and with her lace +handkerchief she rubbed the hand he had kissed, as if removing the +slime of a reptile; and the large mirror at the further end of the +room had faithfully reflected the suggestive little pantomime. He saw +and understood all in a flash. + +No words could have so plainly told her feeling toward him, and he was +one of those reptiles that could sting remorselessly in revenge. The +nature of the imposition practiced upon him, and the fact that it was +partially successful and might have been wholly so, cut him in the +sorest spot. He who thought himself able to cope with the shrewdest +and most artful had been overreached by a girl, and he saw at that +moment that her purpose to beguile him long enough for Mr. Allen to +extricate himself from his difficulties might have been successful. He +had had before an uneasy consciousness that he ought to act +decisively, and now he knew it. + +"I'm a fool--a cursed fool," he muttered, speaking the truth for once, +"but it's not too late yet." + +His resolution was taken instantly, but when Edith appeared after a +moment in the library, smiling and affable again, lie seemed in good +spirits also, but there was a steely, serpent-like glitter in his +eyes, that made him more repulsive than ever. But he stayed as late as +the others, knowing that it might be his last evening at the Allens'. +For Edith had said as part of her plan for avoiding Mr. Fox: + +"We shall be too busy to see any company till Tuesday evening, and +then we hope to see you all." + +Her sisters had assented, expecting that it would be the case. + +With a refinement of malice, Mr. Fox sought to give general annoyance, +by a polite insolence toward the others, which they with difficulty +ignored, and a lover-like gallantry toward Edith, which was like +nettles to Gus, and nauseating to her; but she did not dare resent it. +He could at least torment her a little longer. + +At last all were gone, and her father coming in from his club said, +drawing her aside: + +"All right yet?" + +"Yes, but I hope the ordeal will be over soon, or I shall die with +disgust, or, like some I have read of in fairy stories, be killed by a +poisonous breath." + +"Keep it up a little longer, that is a good, brave girl. I think that +by another week we shall be able to defy him," said her father in +cheerful tones. "If my stock rises as much in the next few days as of +late, I shall soon be on _terra firma_." + +If he had known that the mine beneath his feet was loaded, and the +fuse fired, his full face would have become as pale as it was florid +with wine and the dissipation of the evening. + +Monday morning came--all seemed quiet. His stock was rising so rapidly +that he determined to hold on a little longer. + +Goulden met and congratulated him, saying that he had bought a little +himself, and would take more if Mr. Allen would sell, as now he was +easier in funds than when spoken to before on the subject. + +Mr. Allen replied rather coldly that he would not sell any stock that +day. + +Mr. Fox kept out of the way, and quietly attended to his routine as +usual, but there was a sardonic smile on his face, as if he were +gloating over some secret evil. + +Tuesday, the long-expected day that the Allens believed would make one +of the most brilliant epochs in their history, dawned in appropriate +brightness. The sun dissipated the few opposing clouds and declined in +undimmed splendor, and Edith, who alone had fears and forebodings, +took the day as an omen that the storm had passed, and that better +days than ever were coming. + +Invitations by the hundred, with imposing monogram and coat-of-arms, +had gone out, and acceptances had flowed back in full current. All +that lavish expenditure could secure in one of the most luxurious +social centres of the world had been obtained without stint to make +the entertainment perfect. + +But one knew that it might become like Belshazzar's feast. + +The avalanche often hangs over the Alpine passes so that a loud word +will bring it whirling down upon the hapless traveller. The avalanche +of ruin, impending over Mr. Allen, was so delicately poised that a +whisper could precipitate its crushing weight, and that whisper had +been spoken. + +All the morning of Tuesday his stock was rising, and he resolved that +on the morning after the party he would commence selling rapidly, and, +so far from being bankrupt, he would realize much of the profit that +he had expected. + +But a rumor was floating through the afternoon papers that a well- +known merchant, eminent in financial and social circles, had been +detected in violating the revenue laws, and that the losses which such +violation would involve to him would be immense. The stock market, +more sensitive than a belle's vanity, paused to see what it meant. One +of Mr. Allen's partners of the cloth house brought a paper to him. He +grew pale as he read it, put his hand suddenly to his head, but after +a moment seemingly found his voice and said: + +"Could Fox have been so dastardly?" + +His partner shrugged his shoulder as much as to say, "Fox could do +anything in that line." + +Mr. Allen sent for Fox, but he could not be found. In the meantime the +stock market closed and the rise of his stock was evidently checked +for the moment. + +By reason of the party, Mr. Allen had to return uptown, but he +arranged with his partner to remain and if anything new developed to +send word by special messenger. + +By eight o'clock the Allen mansion on Fifth Avenue was all aglow with +light. By nine, carriages began to roll up to the awning that +stretched from the heavy arched doorway across the sidewalk, and +ladies that would soon glide through the spacious rooms in elegant +drapery, now seemed misshapen bundles in their wrapping, and gathered +up dresses as they hurried out of the publicity of the street. The +dressing-rooms where the spheroidal bundles were undergoing +metamorphose became buzzing centres of life. + +Before the long pier glasses there was a marshalling of every charm, +real or borrowed (more correctly bought), in view of the hoped-for +conquests of the evening, and it would seem that not a few went on the +military maxim that success is often secured by putting on as bold a +front, and making as great and startling display, as possible. But as +fragrant, modest flowers usually bloom in the garden with gaudy, +scentless ones, so those inclined to be _bizarre_ made an excellent +foil for the refined and elegant, and thus had their uses. There is +little in the world that is not of value, looking at it from some +point of view. + +In another apartment the opposing forces, if we may so style them, +were almost as eagerly investing themselves in--shall we say charms +also? or rather with the attributes of manhood? At any rate the +glasses seem quite as anxiously consulted in that room as in the +other. One might almost imagine them the magic mirrors of prophecy in +which anxious eyes caught a glimpse of coming fate. There were certain +youthful belles and beaux who turned away with open complacent smiles, +vanity whispering plainly to them of noble achievement in the parlors +below. There were others, perhaps not young, who turned away with +faces composed in the rigid and habitual lines of pride. They were +past learning anything from the mirror, or from any other source that +might reflect disparagingly upon them. Prejudice in their own favor +surrounded their minds as with a Chinese wall. Conceit had become a +disease with them, and those faculties that might have let in +wholesome, though unwelcome, truth were paralyzed. + +But the majority turned away not quite satisfied--with an inward +foreboding that all was not as well as it might be--that critical eyes +would see ground for criticism. Especially was this true of those whom +Time's interfering fingers had pulled somewhat awry, even beyond the +remedy of art, and of those whose bank account, jewels, silks, etc., +were not quite up to the standard of some others who might jostle them +in the crush. Realize, my reader, the anguish of a lady compelled to +stand by another lady wearing larger diamonds than her own, or more +point lace, or a longer train. What _will_ the world think, as under +the chandelier this painful contrast comes out? Such moments of deep +humiliation cause sleepless nights, and the next day result in bills +that become as crushing as criminal indictments to poor overworked +men. Under the impulse of such trying scenes as these, many a matron +has gone forth on Broadway with firm lips and eyes in which glowed +inexorable purpose, and placed the gems that would be mill-stones +about her husband's neck on the fat arms or fingers that might have +helped him forward. There are many phases of heroism, but if you +want your breath quite taken away, go to Tiffany's, and see some +large-souled woman, who will not even count the cost or realize the +dire consequences--see her, like some martyr of the past, who would +show to the world the object of his faith though the heavens fell, +march to the counter, select the costliest, and say in tones of +majesty: + +"Send the bill to my husband!" + +Oh, acme of faith! The martyrs knew that the Almighty was equal to +the occasion. She knows that her husband is not; yet she trusts, or, +what is the same thing here, gets trusted. Men allied to such women +are soon lifted up to--attics. It is still true that great deeds bring +humanity nearer heaven! + +Therefore, my reader, deem it not trivial that I have paused so long +over the Allens' party. It is philosophical to trace great events and +phenomenal human action to their hidden causes. + +There were also diffident men and maidens who descended into the +social arena of Mrs. Allen's parlors, as awkward swimmers venture into +deep water, but this is fleeting experience in fashionable life. And +we sincerely hope that some believed that the old divine paradox, "It +is more blessed to give than to receive," is as true in the drawing- +room as when the contribution-box goes round, and proposed to enjoy +themselves by contributing to the enjoyment of others, and to see +nothing that would tempt to heroic conduct at Tiffany's the next day. + +When the last finishing touches had been given, and maids and +hairdressers stood around in rapt politic breathlessness, and were +beginning to pass into that stage in which they might be regarded as +exclamation points, Mrs. Allen and her daughters swept away to take +their places at the head of the parlors in order to receive. They +liked the prelude of applause upstairs well enough, but then it was +only like the tuning of the instruments before the orchestra fairly +opens. + +Mrs. Allen, as she majestically took her position, evidently belonged +to that class whom pride petrifies. Her self-complacency on such an +occasion was habitual, her coolness and repose those of a veteran. A +nervous creature upstairs with her family, excitement made her, under +the eye of society, so steady and self-controlled that she was like +one of the old French marshals who could plan a campaign under the +hottest fire. Her blue eyes grew quite brilliant and seemed to take in +everything. Some natural color shone where the cosmetics permitted, +and her form seemed to dilate with something more than the mysteries +of French modistes. Her manner and expression said: + +"I am Mrs. Allen. We are of an old New York family. We are very, very +rich. This entertainment is immensely expensive and perfect in kind. I +defy criticism. I expect applause." + +Of course this was all veiled by society's completest polish; but +still by a close observer it could be seen, just as a skilful sculptor +drapes a form, but leaves its outlines perfect. + +Laura was the echo of her mother, modified by the element of youth. + +Zell fairly blazed. What with sparkling jewelry, flaming cheeks, +flashing eyes, and words thrown off like scintillating sparks, she +suggested an exquisite July firework, burning longer than usual and +surprising every one. Admiration followed her like a torrent, and her +vanity dilated without measure as attention and compliments were +almost forced upon her, and yet it was frank, good-natured vanity, as +naturally to be expected in her case as a throng of gaudy poppies +where a handful of seed had been dropped. Zell's nature was a soil +where good or bad seed would grow vigorously. + +Mr. Van Dam was never far off, and watched her with intent, gloating +eyes, saying in self-congratulation: + +"What a delicious morsel she will make!" and adding his mite to the +general chorus of flattery by mild assertions like the following: + +"Do you know that there is not a lady present that for a moment can +compare with you?" + +"How delightfully frank he is!" thought Zell of her distinguished +admirer, who was as open as a quicksand that can swallow up anything +and leave not a trace on its surface. Edith was quite as beautiful as +Zell, but far less brilliant and pronounced. Though quiet and +graceful, she was not stately like Laura. Her full dark eyes were +lustrous rather than sparkling, and they dwelt shrewdly and +comprehendingly on all that was passing, and conveyed their +intelligence to a brain that was judging quite accurately of men and +things at a time when so many people "lose their heads." + +Zell was intoxicated by the incense she received. Laura offered +herself so much that she was enshrouded in a thick cloud of +complacency all the time. Edith was told by the eyes and manner of +those around her that she was beautiful and highly favored by wealth +and position generally. But she knew this, as a matter of fact, +before, and did not mean to make a fool of herself on account of it. +These points thoroughly settled and quietly realized, she was in a +condition to go out of herself and enjoy all that was going on. + +She was specially elated at this time also, as she had gathered from +her father's words that his danger was nearly over and that before the +week was out they could defy Mr. Fox, look forward to Europe and +bright voyaging generally. + +Mr. Allen did not tell her his terrible fear that Mr. Fox had been a +little too prompt, and that crushing disaster might still be +impending. He had said to himself, "Let her and all of them make the +most of this evening. It may be the last of the kind that they will +enjoy." + +The spacious parlors filled rapidly. If lavish expenditure and a large +brilliant attendance could insure their enjoyment, it was not wanting. +Flowers in fanciful baskets on the tables and in great banks on the +mantels and in the fireplaces deservedly attracted much attention and +praise, though the sum expended on their transient beauty was +appalling. Their delicious fragrance mingling with perfumes of +artificial origin suggested a like intermingling of the more delicate, +subtile, but genuine manifestations of character, and the graces of +mind and manner borrowed for the occasion. + +The scene was very brilliant. There were marvellous toilets--dresses +not beginning as promptly as they should, perhaps, but seemingly +seeking to make up for this deficiency by elegance and costliness, +having once commenced. There was no economy in the train, if there had +been in the waist. Therefore gleaming shoulders, glittering diamonds, +the soft radiance of pearls, the sheen of gold, and lustrous eyes +aglow with excitement, and later in the evening, with wine, gave a +general phosphorescent effect to the parlors that Mrs. Allen +recognized, from long experience, as the sparkling crown of success. +So much elegance on the part of the ladies present would make the +party the gem of the season, and the gentlemen in dark dress made a +good black enamel setting. + +There was a confused rustle of silks and a hum of voices, and now and +then a silvery laugh would ring out above these like the trill of a +bird in a breezy grove. Later, light airy music floated through the +rooms, followed by the rhythmic cadence of feet. A thinly clad +shivering little match-girl stopped on her weary tramp to her cellar +and caught glimpses of the scene through the oft-opening door and +between the curtains of the windows. It seemed to her that those +glancing forms were in heaven. Alas for this earthly paradise! + +Mr. Fox, with characteristic malice, had managed that Mr. Allen and +perhaps the family should have, as his contribution to the +entertainment, the sickening dread which the news in the afternoon +papers would occasion. As the evening advanced he determined to accept +the invitation and watch the effect. He avoided Mr. Allen, and soon +gathered that Edith and the rest knew nothing of the impending blow. +Edith smiled graciously on him; she felt that, like the sun, she could +shine on all that night. But as, in his insolence, his attentions grew +marked, she soon shook him off by permitting Gus Elliot to claim her +for a waltz. + +Mr. Fox glided around, Mephistopheles-like, gloating on the sinister +changes that he would soon occasion. He was to succeed even better +than he dreamed. + +The evening went forward with music and dancing, discussing, +disparaging, flirting, and skirmishing, culminating in numbers and +brilliancy as some gorgeous flower might expand; and seemingly it +would have ended by the gay company's rustling departure like the +flower, as the varied colored petals drop away from the stem, had not +an event occurred which was like a rude hand plucking the flower in +its fullest bloom and tearing the petals away in mass. + +The magnificent supper had just been demolished. Champagne had foamed +without stint, cause and symbol of the increasing but transient +excitement of the occasion. More potent wines and liquors, suggestive +of the stronger and deeper passions that were swaying the mingled +throng, had done their work, and all, save the utterly _blase_, +had secured that noble elevation which it is the province of these +grand social combinations to create. Even Mr. Allen regained his +habitual confidence and elevation as his waist-coat expanded under, or +rather over, those means of cheer and consolation which he had so long +regarded as the best panacea for earthly ills. The oppressive sense of +danger gave place to a consciousness of the warm, rosy present. Mr. +Fox and the custom-house seemed but the ugly phantoms of a past dream. +Was he not the rich Mr. Allen, the owner of this magnificent mansion, +the cornerstone of this superb entertainment? If by reason of wine he +saw a little double, he only saw double homage on every side. He heard +in men's tones, and saw in woman's glances, that any one who could pay +for his surroundings that night was no ordinary person. His wife +looked majestic as she swept through the parlors on the arm of one of +his most distinguished fellow-citizens. Through the library door he +could see Mr. Goulden leaning toward Laura and saying something that +made even her pale face quite peony-like. Edith, exquisite as a moss- +rose, was about to lead off in the German in the large front parlor. +Zell was near him, the sparkling centre of a breezy, merry little +throng that had gathered round her. It seemed that all that he loved +and valued most was grouped around him in the guise most attractive to +his worldly eyes. In this moment of unnatural elation hope whispered, +"To-morrow you can sell your stock, and, instead of failing, increase +your vast fortune, and then away to new scenes, new pleasures, free +from the burden of care and fear." It was at that moment of false +confidence and pride, when in suggestive words descriptive of the +ancient tragedy of Belshazzar he "had drank wine and praised the gods +of gold and of silver" which he had so long worshipped, and which had +secured to him all that so dilated his soul with exultation, that he +saw the handwriting, not of shadowy fingers "upon the wall," but of +his partner, sent, as agreed, by a special messenger. With revulsion +and chill of fear he tore open the envelope and read: + +"Pox has done his worst. We are out for a million--All will be in the +morning papers." + +Even his florid, wine-inflamed cheeks grew pale, and he raised his +hand tremblingly to his head, and slowly lifted his eyes like a man +who dreads seeing something, but is impelled to look. The first object +they rested on was the sardonic, mocking face of Mr. Fox, who, ever on +the alert, had seen the messenger enter, and guessed his errand. The +moment Mr. Allen saw this hated visage, a sudden fury took possession +of him. He crushed the missive in his clenched fist, and took a hasty +stride of wrath toward his tormentor, stopped, put his hand again to +his head, a film came over his eyes, he reeled a second, and then fell +like a stone to the floor. The heavy thud of the fall, the clash of +the chandelier overhead, could be heard throughout the rooms above the +music and hum of voices, and all were startled. Edith in the very act +of leading off in the dance stood a second like an exquisite statue of +awed expectancy, and then Zell's shriek of fear and agony, "Father!" +brought her to the spot, and with wild, frightened eyes, and blanched +faces, the two girls knelt above the unconscious man, while the +startled guests gathered round in helpless curiosity. + +The usual paralysis following sudden accident was brief on this +occasion, for there were two skilful physicians present, one of them +having long been the family attendant. Mrs. Allen and Laura, in a +half-hysterical state, stood clinging to each other, supported by Mr. +Goulden, as the medical gentlemen made a slight examination and +applied restoratives. After a moment they lifted their heads and +looked gravely and significantly at each other; then the family +adviser said: + +"Mr. Allen had better be carried at once to his room, and the house +become quiet." + +An injudicious guest asked in a loud whisper, "Is it apoplexy?" + +Mrs. Allen caught the word, and with a stifled cry fainted dead away, +and was borne to her apartment in an unconscious state. Laura, who had +inherited Mrs. Allen's nervous nature, was also conveyed to her room, +laughing and crying in turns beyond control. Zell still knelt over her +father, sobbing passionately, while Edith, with her large eyes dilated +with fear, and her cheeks in wan contrast with the sunset glow they +had worn all the evening, maintained her presence of mind, and asked +Mr. Goulden, Mr. Van Dam, and Gus Elliot, to carry her father to his +room. They, much pleased in thus being singled out as special friends +of the family, officiously obeyed. + +Poor Mr. Allen was borne away from the pinnacle of his imaginary +triumph as if dead, Zell following, wringing her hands, and with +streaming eyes; but Edith reminded one of some wild, timid creature of +the woods, which, though in an extremity of danger and fear, is alert +and watchful, as if looking for some avenue of escape. Her searching +eyes turned almost constantly toward the family physician, and he as +persistently avoided meeting them. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AMONG THE BREAKERS + + + +After another brief but fuller examination of Mr. Allen in the privacy +of his own room, Dr. Mark went down to the parlors. The guests were +gathered in little groups, talking in low, excited whispers; those who +had seen the reading of the note and Mr. Allen's strange action +gaining brief eminence by their repeated statements of what they had +witnessed and their varied surmises. The role of commentator, if +mysterious human action be the text, is always popular, and as this +explanatory class are proverbially gifted in conjecture, there were +many theories of explanation. Some of the guests had already the good +taste to prepare for departure, and when Dr. Mark appeared from the +sick room, and said: + +"Mr. Allen and the family will be unable to appear again this evening. +I am under the painful necessity of saying that this occasion, which +opened so brilliantly, must now come to a sad and sudden end. I will +convey your adieux and expressions of sympathy to the family"--there +was a general move to the dressing-rooms. The doctor was overwhelmed +for a moment with expressions of sympathy, that in the main were felt, +and well questioned by eager and genuine curiosity, for Fox had +dropped some mysterious hints during the evening, which had been +quietly circulating. But Dr. Mark was professionally non-committal, +and soon excused himself that he might attend to his patient. + +The house, that seemingly a moment before was ablaze with light and +resounding with fashionable revelry, suddenly became still, and grew +darker and darker, as if the shadowing wings of the dreaded angel were +drawing very near. In the large, elegant rooms, where so short a time +before gems and eyes had vied in brightness, old Hannibal now walked +alone with silent tread and a peculiarly awed and solemn visage. One +by one he extinguished the lights, leaving but faint glimmers here and +there, that were like a few forlorn hopes struggling against the +increasing darkness of disaster. Under his breath he kept repeating +fervently, "De Lord hab mercy," and this, perhaps, was the only +intelligent prayer that went up from the stricken household in this +hour of sudden danger and alarm. Though we believe the Divine Father +sees the dumb agony of His creatures, and pities them, and often when +they, like the drowning, are grasping at straws of human help and +cheer, puts out His strong hand and holds them up; still it is in +accordance with His just law that those who seek and value His +friendship find it and possess it in adversity. The height of the +storm is a poor time and the middle of the angry Atlantic a poor place +in which to provide life-boats. + +The Allens had never looked to Heaven, save as a matter of form. They +had a pew in a fashionable church, but did not very regularly occupy +it, and such attendance had done scarcely anything to awaken or +quicken their spiritual life. They came home and gossiped about the +appearance of their "set," and perhaps criticised the music, but one +would never have dreamed from manner or conversation that they had +gone to a sacred place to worship God in humility. Indeed, scarcely a +thought of Him seemed to have dwelt in their minds. Religious faith +had never been of any practical help, and now in their extremity it +seemed utterly intangible, and in no sense to be depended on. + +When Mrs. Allen recovered from her swoon, and Laura had gained some +self-control, they sent for Dr. Mark, and eagerly suggested both their +hope and fear. + +"It's only a fainting fit, doctor, is it not? Will he not soon be +better?" + +"My dear madam, we will do all we can," said the doctor, with that +professional solemnity which might accompany the reading of a death +warrant, "but it is my painful duty to tell you to prepare for the +worst. Your husband has an attack of apoplexy." + +He had scarcely uttered the words before she was again in a swoon, and +Laura also lost her transient quietness. Leaving his assistant and +Mrs. Allen's maid to take care of them, he went back to his graver +charge. + +Mr. Allen lay insensible on his bed, and one could hardly realize that +he was a dying man. His face was as flushed and full as it often +appeared on his return from his club. To the girls' unpracticed ears, +his loud, stentorous breathing only indicated heavy sleep. But neither +they nor the doctor could arouse him, and at last the physician met +Edith's questioning eyes, and gravely and significantly shook his +head. Though she had borne up so steadily and quietly, he felt more +for her than for any of the others. + +"Oh, doctor! can't you save him?" she pleaded. + +"You must save him," cried Zell, her eyes flashing through her tears, +"I would be ashamed, if I were a physician, to stand over a strong +man, and say helplessly, 'I can do nothing.' Is this all your boasted +skill amounts to? Either do something at once or let us get some one +who will." + +"Your feelings to-night, Miss Zell," said the doctor quietly, "will +excuse anything you say, however wild and irrational. I am doing +all--" + +"I am not wild or unreasonable," cried Zell. "I only demand that my +father's life be saved." Then starting up she threw off a shawl and +stood before Dr. Mark in the dress she had worn in the evening, that +seemed a sad mockery in that room of death. Her neck and arms were +bare, and even the cool, experienced physician was startled by her +wonderful beauty and strange manner. Her white throat was convulsed, +her bosom heaved tumultuously, and on her face was the expression that +might have rested on the face of a maiden like herself centuries +before, when shown the rack and dungeon, and told to choose between +her faith and her life. + +But after a moment she extended her white rounded arm toward him and +said steadily: + +"I have read that if the blood of a young, vigorous person is infused +into another who is feeble and old, it will give renewed strength and +health. Open a vein in my arm. Save his life if you take mine." + +"You are a brave, noble girl," said Dr. Mark, with much emotion, +taking the extended hand and pressing it tenderly, "but you are asking +what is impossible in this case. Do you not remember that I am an old +friend of your father's? It grieves me to the heart that his attack is +so severe that I fear all within the reach of human skill is vain." + +Zell, who was a creature of impulse, and often of noblest impulse, as +we have seen, now reacted into a passion of weeping, and sank +helplessly on the floor. She was capable of heroic action, but she had +no strength for woman's lot, which is so often that of patient +endurance. + +Edith came and put her arms around her, and with gentle, soothing +words, as if speaking to a child, half carried her to her room, where +she at last sobbed herself asleep. + +For another hour Edith and the doctor watched alone, and the dying man +sank rapidly, going down into the darkness of death without word or +sign. + +"Oh that he would speak once more!" moaned Edith. + +"I fear he will not, my dear," said the doctor, pitifully. + +A little later Mr. Allen was motionless, like one who has been touched +in unquiet sleep and becomes still. Death had touched him, and a +deeper sleep had fallen upon him. + +One of the great daily bulletins will go to press in an hour. A +reporter jumps into a waiting hack and is driven rapidly uptown. + +While the city sleeps preparations must go on in the markets for +breakfast, and in printing rooms for that equal necessity in our day, +the latest news. Therefore all night long there are dusky figures +flitting hither and thither, seeing to it that when we come down in +gown and slippers, our steak and the world's gossip be ready. + +The breakfast of the Gothamites was furnished abundantly with _sauce +piquante_ on the morning of the last day of February, for Hannibal +had shaken his head ominously, and wiped away a few honest tears, +before he could tremulously say to the eager reporter: + +"Mr. Allen--hab--just--died." + +Gathering what few particulars he could, and imagining many more, the +reporter was driven back even more rapidly, full of the elation of a +man who has found a good thing and means to make the most of it. Mr. +Allen himself was not of importance to him, but news about him was. +And this fact crowning the story of his violation of the revenue law +and his prospective loss of a million, would make a brisk breeze in +the paper to which he was attached, and might waft him a little +further on as an enterprising news-gatherer. + +It certainly would be the topic of the day on all lips, and poor Mr. +Allen might have plumed himself on this if he had known it, for few +people, unless they commit a crime, are of sufficient importance to be +talked of all day In large, busy New York. In the world's eyes Mr. +Allen had committed a crime. Not that they regarded his stock gambling +as such. Multitudes of church members in good and regular standing +were openly engaged in this. Nor could the slight and unintentional +violation of the revenue law be regarded as such, though so grave in +its consequences. But he had faltered and died when he should not have +given way. What the world demands is success: and sometimes a devil +may secure this where a true man cannot. The world regarded Mr. Van +Dam and Mr. Goulden as very successful men. + +Mr. Fox also had secured success by one adroit wriggle--we can +describe his mode of achieving greatness by no better phrase. He was +destined to receive half a million for his treachery to his employers. +During the war, when United States securities were at their worst; +when men, pledged to take them, forfeited money rather than do so, Mr. +Allen had lent the government millions, because he believed in it, +loved it, and was resolved to sustain it. That same government now +rewards him by putting it in the power of a dishonest clerk to ruin +him, and gives him $500,000 for doing so. Thus it resulted; for we are +compelled to pass hastily over the events immediately following Mr. +Allen's death. His partners made a good fight, showed that there was +no intention to violate the law, and that it was often difficult to +comply with it literally--that the sum claimed to be lost to the +government was ridiculously disproportionate to the amount +confiscated. But it was all in vain. There was the letter of the law, +and there were Mr. Fox and his associates in the custom-house, "all +honorable men," with hands itching to clutch the plunder. + +But before this question was settled the fate of the stock operation +in Wall Street was most effectually disposed of. As soon as Mr. +Goulden heard of Mr. Allen's death, he sold at a slight loss all he +had; but his action awakened suspicion, and it was speedily learned +that the rise was due mainly to Mr. Allen's strong pushing, and the +inevitable results followed. As poor Mr. Allen's remains were lowered +into the vault, his stock in Wall Street was also going down with a +run. + +In brief, in the absence of the master's hand, and by reason of his +embarrassments, there were general wreck and ruin in his affairs; and +Mrs. Allen was soon compelled to face the fact, even more awful to her +than her husband's death, that not a penny remained of his colossal +fortune, and that she had yawningly signed away all of her own means. +But she could only wring her hands in view of these blighting truths, +and indulge in half-uttered complaints against her husband's "folly," +as she termed it. From the first her grief had been more emotional +than deep, and her mind, recovering in part its usual poise, had begun +to be much occupied with preparations for a grand funeral, which was +carried out to her taste. Then arose deeply interesting questions as +to various styles of mourning costume, and an exciting vista of +dressmaking opened before her. She was growing into quite a serene and +hopeful frame when the miserable and blighting facts all broke upon +her. When there was little of seeming necessity to do, and there were +multitudes to do for her, Mrs. Allen's nerves permitted no small +degree of activity. But now, as it became certain that she and her +daughters must do all themselves, her hands grew helpless. The idea of +being poor was to her like dying. It was entering on an experience so +utterly foreign and unknown that it seemed like going to another world +and phase of existence, and she shrank in pitiable dread from it. + +Laura had all her mother's helpless shrinking from poverty, but with +another and even bitterer ingredient added. Mr. Goulden was extremely +polite, exquisitely sympathetic, and in terms as vague as elegantly +expressed had offered to do anything (but nothing in particular) in +his power to show his regard for the family and his esteem for his +departed friend. He was very sorry that business would compel him to +leave town for some little time-- + +Laura had the spirit to interrupt him saying, "It matters little, sir. +There are no further Wall Street operations to be carried on here. +Invest your time and friendship where it will pay." + +Mr. Goulden, who plumed himself that he would slip out of this bad +matrimonial speculation with such polished skill that he would leave +only flattering regret and sighs behind, under the biting satire of +Laura's words suddenly saw what a contemptible creature is the man +whom selfish policy, rather than honor and principle, governs. He had +brains enough to comprehend himself and lose his self-respect then and +there, as he went away tingling with shame from the girl whom he had +wronged, but who had detected his sordid meanness. Sigh after him! She +would ever despise him, and that hurt Mr. Goulden's vanity severely. +He had come very near loving Laura Allen, about as near perhaps as he +ever would come to loving any one, and it had cost him a little more +to give her up than to choose between a good and a bad venture on the +Street. With compressed lips he had said to himself--"No gushing +sentiment. In carrying out your purpose to be rich you must marry +wealth." Therefore he had gone to make what he meant to be his final +call, feeling quite heroic in his steadfastness--his loyalty to +purpose, that is, himself. But as he recalled during his homeward walk +her glad welcome, her wistful, pleading looks, and then, as she +realized the truth, her pain, her contempt, and her meaning words of +scorn, his miserable egotism was swept aside, and for the first time +the selfish man saw the question from her standpoint, and as we have +said he was not so shallow but that he saw and loathed himself. He +lost his self-respect as he never had done before, and therefore to a +certain extent his power ever to be happy again. + +Small men, full of petty conceit, can recover from any wounds upon +their vanity, but proud and large-minded men have a self-respect, even +though based upon questionable foundation. It is essential to them, +and losing it they are inwardly wretched. As soldiers carry the +painful scars of some wounds through life, so Mr. Goulden would find +that Laura's words had left a sore place while memory lasted. + +Mr. Van Dam quite disarmed Edith's suspicions and prejudices by being +more friendly and intimate with Zell than ever, and the latter was +happy and exultant in the fact, saying, with much elation, that her +friend was "not a mercenary wretch, like Mr. Goulden, but remained +just as true and kind as ever." + +It was evident that this attention and show of kindness to the warm- +hearted girl made a deep impression and greatly increased Mr. Van +Dam's power over her. But Edith's suspicion and dislike began to +return as she saw more of the manner and spirit of the man. She +instinctively felt that he was bad and designing. + +One day she quite incensed Zell, who was chanting his praises, by +saying: + +"I haven't any faith in him. What has he done to show real friendship +for us? He comes here only to amuse himself with you; Gus Elliot is +the only one who has been of any help." + +But Edith had her misgivings about Gus also. Now, in her trouble and +poverty, his weakness began to reveal itself in a new and repulsive +light. In fact, that exquisitely fine young gentleman loved Edith well +enough to marry her, but not to work for her. That was a sacrifice +that he could not make for any woman. Though out of his natural +kindness and good-nature he felt very sorry for her, and wanted to +help and pet her, he had been shown his danger so clearly that he was +constrained and awkward when with her, for, to tell the truth, his +father had taken him aside and said: + +"Look here, Gus. See to it that you don't entangle yourself with Miss +Allen, now her father has failed. She couldn't support you now, and +you never can support even yourself. If you would go to work like a +man--but one has got to be a man to do that. It seems true, as your +mother says, that you are of too fine clay for common uses. Therefore, +don't make a fool of yourself. You can't keep up your style on a +pretty face, and you must not wrong the girl by making her think you +can take care of her. I tell you plainly, I can't bear another ounce +added to my burden, and how long I shall stand up under it as it is, I +can't tell." + +Gus listened with a sulky, injured air. He felt that his father never +appreciated him as did his mother and sisters, and indeed society at +large. Society to Gus was the ultra-fashionable world of which he was +one of the shining lights. The ladies of the family quite restored his +equanimity by saying: + +"Now see here, Gus, don't dream of throwing yourself away on Edith +Allen. You can marry any girl you please in the city. So, for Heaven's +sake" (though what Heaven had to do with their advice it is hard to +say), "don't let her lead you on to say what you would wish unsaid. +Remember they are no more now than any other poor people, except that +they are refined, etc., but this will only make poverty harder for +them. Of course we are sorry for them, but in this world people have +got to take care of themselves. So we must be on the lookout for some +one who has money which can't be sunk in a stock operation as if +thrown into the sea." + +After all this sound reason, poor, weak Grus, vaguely conscious of his +helplessness, as stated by his father, and quite believing his +mother's assurance that "he could marry any girl he pleased," was in +no mood to urge the penniless Edith to give him her empty hand, while +before the party, when he believed it full, he was doing his best to +bring her to this point, though in fact she gave him little +opportunity. + +Edith detected the change, and before very long surmised the cause. It +made the young girl curl her lip, and say, in a tone of scorn that +would have done Gus good to hear: + +"The idea of a _man_ acting in this style." + +But she did not care enough about him to receive a wound of any depth, +and with a good-natured tolerance recognized his weakness, and his +genuine liking for her, and determined to make him useful. + +Edith was very practical, and possessed of a brave, resolute nature. +She was capable of strong feelings, but Gus Elliot was not the man to +awaken such in any woman. She liked his company, and proposed to use +him in certain ways. Under her easy manner Gus also became at ease, +and, finding that he was not expected to propose and be sentimental, +was all the more inclined to be friendly. + +"I want you to find me books, and papers also, if there are any, that +tell how to raise fruit," she said to him one day. + +"What a funny request! I should as soon expect you would ask for +instruction how to drive four-in-hand." + +"Nothing of that style, henceforth. I must learn something useful now. +Only the rich can afford to be good-for-nothing, and we are not rich +now." + +"For which I am very sorry," said Gus, with some feeling. + +"Thank you. Such disinterested sympathy is beautiful," said Edith +dryly. + +Gus looked a little red and awkward, but hastened to say, "I will hunt +up what you wish, and bring it as soon as possible." + +"Four are very good. That is all at present," said Edith, in a tone +that made Gus feel that it was indeed all that it was in his power to +do for her at that time, and he went away with a dim perception that +he was scarcely more than her errand boy. It made him very +uncomfortable. Though he wished her to understand he could not marry +her now, he wished her to sigh a little after him. Gus's vanity rather +resented that, instead of pining for him, she should with a little +quiet satire set him to work. He had never read a romance that ended +so queerly. He had expected that they might have a little tender scene +over the inexorable fate that parted them, give and take a memento, +gasp, appeal to the moon, and see each other's face no more, she going +to the work and poverty that he could never stoop to from the innate +refinement and elegance of his being, and he to hunt up the heiress to +whom he would give the honor of maintaining him in his true sphere. + +But his little melodrama was entirely spoiled by her matter-of-fact +way, and what was worse still he felt in her presence as if he did not +amount to much, and that she knew it; and yet, like the poor moth that +singes its wings around the lamp, he could not keep away. + +The prominent trait of Gus's character, as of so many others in our +luxurious age of self-pleasing, was weakness; and yet one must be +insane with vanity to be at ease if he can do nothing resolutely and +dare nothing great. He is a cripple, and, if not a fool, knows it. + +During the eventful month that followed Mr. Allen's death, Mrs. Allen +and her daughters led what seemed to them a very strange life. While +in one sense it was real and intensely painful, in another the +experiences were so new and strange that it all seemed an unreal +dream, a distressing nightmare of trouble and danger, from which they +might awaken to their old life. + +Mrs. Allen, from her large circle of acquaintances, had numerous +callers, many coming from mere morbid curiosity, more from mingled +motives, and not a few from genuine tearful sympathy. To these "her +friends," as she emphatically called them, she found a melancholy +pleasure in recounting all the recent woes, in which she ever appeared +as chief sufferer and chief mourner, though her husband seemed among +the minor losses, and thus most of her time was spent daring the last +few weeks at her old home. Her friends appeared to find a melancholy +pleasure in listening to these details and then in recounting them +again to other "friends" with a running commentary of their own, until +that little fraction of the feminine world acquainted with the Allens +had sighed, surmised, and perhaps gossiped over the "afflicted family" +so exhaustively that it was really time for something new. The men and +the papers downtown also had their say, and perhaps all tried, as far +as human nature would permit, to say nothing but good of the dead and +unfortunate. + +Laura, after the stinging pain of each successive blow to her +happiness, sank into a dreary apathy, and did mechanically the few +things Edith asked of her. + +Zell lived in varied moods and conditions, now weeping bitterly for +her father, again resenting with impotent passion the change in their +fortunes, but ending usually by comforting herself with the thought +that Mr. Van Dam was true to her. He was as true and faithful as an +insidious, incurable disease when once infused into the system. His +infernal policy now was to gradually alienate her interest from her +family and centre it in him. Though promising nothing in an open, +manly way, he adroitly made her believe that only through him, could +she now hope to reach brighter days again, and to Zell he seemed the +one means of escape from a detested life of poverty and privation. She +became more infatuated with him than ever, and cherished a secret +resentment against Edith because of her distrust and dislike of him. + +The Allens had but few near relatives in the city at this time, and +with these they were not on very good terms, nor were they the people +to be helpful in adversity. Mr. Allen's partners were men of the world +like himself, and they were also incensed that he should have been +carrying on private speculations in Wall Street to the extent of +risking all his capital. His fatal stock operation, together with the +government confiscation, had involved them also in ruin; and they had +enough to do to look after themselves. They were far more eager to +secure something out of the general wreck than to see that anything +remained for the family. The Allens were left very much to themselves +in their struggle with disaster, securing help and advice chiefly as +they paid for it. + +Mr. Allen was accustomed to say that women were incapable of business, +and yet here are the ladies of his own household compelled to grapple +with the most perplexing forms of business or suffer aggravated +losses. Though all of his family were of mature years, and thousands +had been spent on their education, they were as helpless as four +children in dealing with the practical questions that daily came to +them for decision. At first all matters were naturally referred to the +widow, but she would only wring her hands and say: + +"I don't know anything about these horrid things. Can't I be left +alone with my sorrow in peace a few days? Go to Edith." + +And to Edith at last all came till the poor girl was almost +distracted. It was of no use to go to Laura for advice, for she would +only say in dreary apathy: + +"Just as you think best. Anything you say." + +She was indulging in unrestrained wretchedness to the utmost. +Luxurious despair is so much easier than painful perplexing action. + +Zell was still "the child" and entirely occupied with Mr. Van Dam. So +Edith had to bear the brunt of everything. She did not do this in +uncomplaining sweetness, like an angel, but scolded the others soundly +for leaving all to her. They whined back that they "couldn't do +anything, and didn't know how to do anything." + +"You know as much as I do," retorted Edith. + +And this was true. Had not Edith possessed a practical resolute +nature, that preferred any kind of action to apathetic inaction and +futile grieving, she would have been as helpless as the rest. + +Do you say then that it was a mere matter of chance that Edith should +be superior to the others, and that she deserved no credit, and they +no blame? Why should such all-important conditions of character be the +mere result of chance and circumstance? Would not Christian education +and principle have vastly improved the Edith that existed? Would they +not have made the others helpful, self-forgetting, and sympathetic? +Why should the world be full of people so deformed, or morally feeble, +or so ignorant, as to be helpless? Why should the naturally strong +work with only contempt and condemnation for the weak? While many say, +"Stand aside, I am holier than thou," perhaps more say, "Stand aside, +I am wiser--stronger than thou," and the weak are made more hopelessly +discouraged. This helplessness on one hand, and arrogant fault-finding +strength on the other, are not the result of chance, but of an +imperfect education. They come from the neglect and wrong-doing of +those whose province it was to train and educate. + +If we find among a family of children reaching maturity one helpless +from deformity, and another from feebleness, and are told that the +parents, by employing surgical skill, might have removed the +deformity, and overcome the weakness by tonic treatment, but had +neglected to do so, we should not have much to say about chance. I +know of a poor man who spent nearly all that he had in the world to +have his boy's leg straightened, and he was called a "good father." +What are these physical defects compared with the graver defects of +character? + +Even though Mr. Allen is dead, we cannot say that he was a good +father, though he spent so many thousands on his daughters. We +certainly cannot call Mrs. Allen a good mother, and the proof of this +is that Laura is feeble and selfish, Zell deformed through lack of +self-control, and Edith hard and pitiless in her comparative strength. +They were unable to cope with the practical questions of their +situation. They had been launched upon the perilous, uncertain voyage +of life without the compass of a true faith or the charts of principle +to guide them, and they had been provided with no life-boats of +knowledge to save them in case of disaster. They are now tossing among +the breakers of misfortune, almost utterly the sport of the winds and +waves of circumstances. If these girls never reached the shore of +happiness and safety, could we wonder? + +How would your daughter fare, my reader, if you were gone and she were +poor, with her hands and brain to depend on for bread, and her heart +culture for happiness? In spite of all your providence and foresight, +such may be her situation. Such becomes the condition of many men's +daughters every day. + +But time and events swept the Allens forward, as the shipwrecked are +borne on the crest of a wave, and we must follow their fortunes. +Hungry creditors, especially the petty ones uptown, stripped them of +everything they could lay their hands on, and they were soon compelled +to leave their Fifth Avenue mansion. The little place in the country, +given to Edith partly in jest by her father as a birthday present, was +now their only refuge, and to this they prepared to go on the first of +April. Edith, as usual, took the lead, and was to go in advance of the +others with such furniture as they had been able to keep, and prepare +for their coming. Old Hannibal, who had grown gray in the service of +the family, and now declined to leave it, was to accompany her. On a +dark, lowering day, symbolic of their fortunes, some loaded drays took +down to the boat that with which they would commence the meagre +housekeeping of their poverty. Edith went slowly down the broad steps +leading from her elegant home, and before she entered the carriage +turned for one lingering, tearful look, such as Eve may have bent upon +the gate of Paradise closing behind her, then sprang into the +carriage, drew the curtains, and sobbed all the way to the boat. +Scarcely once before, during that long, hard month, had she so given +way to her feelings. But she was alone now and none could see her +tears and call her weak. Hannibal took his seat on the box with the +driver, and looked and felt very much as he did when following his +master to Greenwood. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WARPED + + + +It is the early breakfast hour at a small frame house, situated about +a mile from the staid but thriving village of Pushton. But the +indications around the house do not denote thrift. Quite the reverse. +As the neighbors expressed it, "there was a screw loose with Lacey," +the owner of this place. It was going down hill like its master. A +general air of neglect and growing dilapidation impressed the most +casual observer. The front gate hung on one hinge; boards were off the +shackly barn, and the house had grown dingy and weather-stained from +lack of paint. But as you entered and passed from the province of the +master to that of the mistress a new element was apparent, struggling +with, but unable to overcome, the predominant tendency to unthrift and +seediness. But everything that Mrs. Lacey controlled was as neat as +the poor overworked woman could keep it. + +At the time our story becomes interested in her fortunes, Mrs. Lacey +was a middle-aged woman, but appeared older than her years warranted, +from the long-continued strain of incessant toil, and from that which +wears much faster still, the depression of an unhappy, ill-mated life. +Her face wore the pathetic expression of confirmed discouragement. She +reminded one of soldiers fighting when they know that it is of no use, +and that defeat will be the only result, but who fight on +mechanically, in obedience to orders. + +She is now placing a very plain but wholesome and well-prepared +breakfast on the table, and it would seem that both the eating and +cooking were carried on in the same large living-room. Her daughter, a +rosy-cheeked, half-grown girl of fourteen, was assisting her, and both +mother and daughter seemed in a nervous state of expectancy, as if +hoping and fearing the result of a near event. A moment's glance +showed that this event related to a lad of about seventeen, who was +walking about the room, vainly trying to control the agitation which +is natural even to the cool and experienced when feeling that they are +at one of the crises of life. + +It could not be expected of Arden Lacey at his age to be cool and +experienced. Indeed his light curling hair, blue eyes, and a mobile +sensitive mouth, suggested the reverse of a stolid self-poise, or +cheerful endurance. Any one accustomed to observe character could see +that he was possessed of a nervous, fine-fibred nature capable of +noble achievement under right influences, but also easily warped and +susceptible to sad injury under brutal wrong. He was like those +delicate and somewhat complicated musical instruments that produce the +sweetest harmonies when in tune and well played upon, but the most +jangling discords when unstrung and in rough, ignorant hands. He had +inherited his nervous temperament, his tendency to irritation and +excess, from the diseased, over-stimulated system of his father, who +was fast becoming a confirmed inebriate, and who had been poisoning +himself with bad liquors all his life. From his mother he had obtained +what balance he had in temperament, but he owed more to her daily +influence and training. It was the one struggle of the poor woman's +life to shield her children from the evil consequences of their +father's life. For her son she had special anxiety, knowing his +sensitive, high-strung nature, and his tendency to go headlong into +evil if his self-respect and self-control were once lost. His +passionate love for her had been the boy's best trait, and through +this she had controlled him thus far. But she had thought that it +might be best for him to be away from his father's presence and +influence if she could only find something that accorded with his +bent. And this eventually proved to be a college education. The boy +was of a quick and studious mind. From earliest years he had been fond +of books, and as time advanced, the passion for study and reading grew +upon him. He had a strong imagination, and his favorite styles of +reading were such as appealed to this. In the scenes of history and +romance he escaped from the sordid life of toil and shame to which his +father condemned him, into a large realm that seemed rich and +glorified in contrast. When he was but fourteen the thought of a +liberal education fired his ambition and became the dream of his life. +He made the very most of the district school to which he was sent in +winter. The teacher happened to be a well-educated man, and took pride +in his apt, eager scholar. Between the boy's and the mother's savings +they had obtained enough to secure private lessons in Latin and Greek, +and now at the age of seventeen he was tolerably well prepared for +college. + +But the father had no sympathy at all with these tastes, and from the +incessant labor he required of his son, and the constant interruptions +he occasioned in his studies even in winter, he had been a perpetual +bar to all progress. + +On the day previous to the scene described in the opening of this +chapter, the winter term had closed, and Mr. Rule, the teacher, had +declared that Arden could enter college, and with natural pride in his +own work as instructor, intimated that he would lead his class if he +did. + +Both mother and son were so elated at this that they determined at +once to state the fact to the father, thinking that if he had any of +the natural feelings of a parent he would take some pride in his boy, +and be willing to help him obtain the education he longed for. + +But there is little to be hoped from a man who is completely under the +influence of ignorance and rum. Mr. Lacey was the son of a small +farmer like himself, and never had anything to recommend him but his +fine looks, which had captivated poor Mrs. Lacey to her cost. Unlike +the majority of his class, who are fast becoming a very intelligent +part of the community, and are glad to educate their children, he +boasted that he liked the "old ways," and by these he meant the worst +ways of his father's day, when books and schools were scarce, and few +newspapers found their way to rural homes. He was, like his father +before him, a graduate of the village tavern, and had imbibed bad +liquor and his ideas of life at the same time from that objectionable +source. With the narrow-mindedness of his class, he had a prejudice +against all learning that went beyond the three R's, and had watched +with growing disapprobation his son's taste for books, believing that +it would spoil him as a farm hand, and make him an idle dreamer. He +was less and less inclined to work himself as his frame became +diseased and enfeebled from intemperance, and he determined now to get +as much work as possible out of that "great hulk of a boy," as he +called Arden. He had picked up some hints of the college hopes, and +the very thought angered him. He determined that when the boy broached +the subject he would give him such a "jawing" (to use his own +vernacular) "as would put an end to that nonsense." Therefore both +Arden and his mother, who were waiting as we have described in such a +perturbed anxious state for his entrance, were doomed to bitter +disappointment. At last a heavy red-faced man entered the kitchen, +stalking in on the white floor out of the drizzling rain with his +muddy boots leaving tracks and blotches in keeping with his character. +But he had the grace to wash his grimy hands before sitting down to +the table. He was always in a bad humor in the morning, and the chilly +rain had not improved it. A glance around showed him that something +was on hand, and he surmised that it was the college business. He at +once thought within himself: + +"I'll squelch the thing now, once for all." + +Turning to his son, he said, "Look here, youngster, why hain't you +been out doing your chores? D'ye expect me to do your work and mine, +too?" + +"Father," said the impulsive boy with a voice of trembling eagerness, +"if you will let me go to college next fall, I'll do my work and yours +too. I'll work night and day--" + +"What cussed nonsense is this?" demanded the man harshly, clashing +down his knife and fork and turning frowningly toward his son. + +"No, but father, listen to me before you refuse. Mr. Rule says I'm fit +to enter college and that I can lead my class too. I've been studying +for this three years. I've set my heart upon it," and in his +earnestness, tears gathered in his eyes. + +"The more fool you, and old Rule is another," was the coarse answer. + +The boy's eyes flashed angrily, but the mother here spoke. + +"You ought to be proud of your son, John; if you were a true father +you would be. If you'd encourage and help him now, he'd make a man +that--" + +"Shut up! little you know about it. He'd make one of your snivelling +white-fingered loafers that's too proud to get a living by hard work. +Perhaps you'd like to make a parson out of him. Now look here, old +woman, and you, too, my young cock, I've suspicioned that something of +this kind was up, but I tell you once for all it won't go. Just as +this hulk of a boy is gettin' of some use to me, you want to spoil him +by sending him to college. I'll see him hanged first," and the man +turned to his breakfast as if he had settled it. But he was startled +by his son's exclaiming passionately: + +"I will go." + +"Look here, what do _you_ mean?" said the father, rising with a black +ugly look. + +"I mean I've set my heart on going to college and I will go. You and +all the world shan't hinder me. I won't stay here and be a farm drudge +all my life." + +The man's face was livid with anger, and in a low, hissing tone he +said: + +"I guess you want taking down a peg, my college gentleman. Perhaps you +don't know I'm master till you're twenty-one," and he reached down a +large leather strap. + +"You strike me if you dare," shouted the boy. + +"If I dare! haw! haw! If I don't cut the cussed nonsense out of yer +this morning, then I never did," and he took an angry stride toward +his son, who sprang behind the stove. + +The wife and mother had stood by growing whiter and whiter, and with +lips pressed closely together. At this critical moment she stepped +before her infuriated husband and seized his arm, exclaiming: + +"John, take care. You have reached the end." + +"Stand aside," snarled the man, raising the strap, "or I'll give you a +taste of it, too." + +The woman's grasp tightened on his arm, and in a voice that made him +pause and look fixedly at her, she said: + +"If you strike me or that boy I'll take my children and we will leave +your roof this hateful day never to return." + +"Hain't I to be master in my own house?" said the husband sullenly. + +"You are not to be a brute in your own house. I know you've struck me +before, but I endured it and said nothing about it because you were +drunk, but you are not drunk now, and if you lay a finger on me or my +son to-day, I will never darken your doors again." + +The unnatural father saw that he had gone too far. He had not expected +such an issue. He had long been accustomed to follow the lead of his +brutal passions, but had now reached a point where he felt he must +stop, as his wife said. Turning on his heel, he sullenly took his +place at the table, muttering: + +"It's a pretty pass when there's mutiny in a man's own house." Then to +his son, "You won't get a d--n cent out of me for your college +business, mind that." + +Rose, the daughter, who had been crying and wringing her hands on the +door-step, now came timidly in, and at a sign from her mother she and +her brother went into another room. + +The man ate for a while in dogged silence, but at last in a tone that +was meant to be somewhat conciliatory said: + +"What the devil did you mean by putting the boy up to such +foolishness?" + +"Hush!" said his wife imperiously, "I'm in no mood to talk with you +now." + +"Oh, ah, indeed, a man can't even speak in his own house, eh? I guess +I'll take myself off to where I can have a little more liberty," and +he went out, harnessed his old white horse, and started for his +favorite groggery in the village. + +His father had no sooner gone than Arden came out and said +passionately: + +"It's no use, mother, I can't stand it; I must leave home to-day. I +guess I can make a living; at any rate I'd rather starve than pass +through such scenes." + +The poor, overwrought woman threw herself down in a low chair and +sobbed, rocking herself back and forth. + +"Wait till I die, Arden, wait till I die. I feel it won't be long. +What have I to live for but you and Rosy? And if you, my pride and +joy, go away after what has happened, it will be worse than death," +and a tempest of grief shook her gaunt frame. + +Arden was deeply moved. Boylike he had been thinking only of himself, +but now as never before he realized her hard lot, and in his warm, +impulsive heart there came a yearning tenderness for her such as he +had never felt before. He took her in his arms and kissed and +comforted her, till even her sore heart felt the healing balm of love +and ceased its bitter aching. At last she dried her eyes and said with +a faint smile: "With such a boy to pet me, the world isn't all flint +and thorns yet." + +And Rosy came and kissed her too, for she was an affectionate child, +though a little inclined to be giddy and vain. + +"Don't worry, mother," said Arden. "I will stay and take such good +care of you that you will have many years yet, and happier ones, too, +I hope," and he resolved to keep this promise, cost what it might. + +"I hardly think I ought to ask it of you, though even the thought of +your going away breaks my heart." "I will stay," said the boy, almost +as passionately as he had said, "I will go." "I now see how much you +need a protector." + +That night the father came home so stupidly drunk that they had to +half carry him to bed where he slept heavily till morning, and rose +considerably shaken and depressed from his debauch. The breakfast was +as silent as it had been stormy on the previous day. After it was +over, Arden followed his father to the door and said: + +"I was a boy yesterday morning, but you made me a man, and a rather +ugly one too. I learned then for the first time that you occasionally +strike my mother. Don't you ever do it again, or it will be worse for +you, drunk or sober. I am not going to college, but will stay at home +and take care of her. Do we understand each other?" + +The man was in such a low, shattered condition that his son's bearing +cowed him, and he walked off muttering: + +"Young cocks crow mighty loud," but from that time forward he never +offered violence to his wife or children. + +Still his father's conduct and character had a most disastrous effect +upon the young man. He was soured, because disappointed in his most +cherished purpose at an age when most youths scarcely have definite +plans. Many have a strong natural bent, and if turned aside from this, +they are more or less unhappy, and their duties, instead of being +wings to help life forward, become a galling yoke. + +This was the case with Arden. Farm work, as he had learned it from his +father, was coarse, heavy drudgery, with small and uncertain returns, +and these were largely spent at the village rum shops in purchasing +slow perdition for the husband, and misery and shame for his wife and +children. In respectable Pushton, a drunkard's family, especially if +poor, had a very low social status. Mrs. Lacey and her children would +not accept of bad associations, so they had scarcely any. This +ostracism, within certain limits, is perhaps right. The preventive +penalties of vice can scarcely be too great, and men and women must be +made to feel that wrong-doing is certain to be followed by terrible +consequences. The fire is merciful in that it always burns, and sin +and suffering are inseparably linked. But the consequences of one +person's sin often blight the innocent. The necessity of this from our +various ties should be a motive, a hostage against sinning, and +doubtless restrains many a one who would go headlong under evil +impulses. But multitudes do slip off the paths of virtue, and helpless +wives, and often helpless husbands and children, writhe from wounds +made by those under sacred obligations to shield them. Upon the +families of criminals, society visits a mildew of coldness and scorn +that blights nearly all chance of good fruit. But society is very +unjust in its discriminations, and some of the most heinous sins in +God's sight are treated as mere eccentricities, or condemned in the +poor, but winked at in the rich. Gentlemen will admit to their parlors +men about whom they know facts which if true of a woman would close +every respectable door against her, and God frowns on the Christian +(?) society that makes such arbitrary and unjust distinctions. Cast +both out, till they bring forth fruits meet for repentance. + +But we hope for little of a reformative tendency from the selfish +society of the world. Changing human fashion rules it, rather than the +eternal truth of the God of love. The saddest feature of all is that +the shifting code of fashion is coming more and more to govern the +church. Doctrine may remain the same, profession and intellectual +belief the same, while practical action drifts far astray. There are +multitudes of wealthy churches, that will no more admit associations +with that class among which our Lord lived and worked, than will +select society. They seem designed to help only respectable, well- +connected sinners, toward heaven. + +This tendency has two phases. In the cities the poor are practically +excluded from worshipping with the rich, and missions are established +for them as if they were heathen. There can be no objection to costly, +magnificent churches. Nothing is too good to be the expression of our +honor and love of God. But they should be like the cathedrals of +Europe, where prince and peasant may bow together on the same level +they have in the Divine presence. Christ made no distinction between +the rich and poor regarding their spiritual value and need, nor should +the Christianity named after Him. To the degree that it does, it is +not Christianity. The meek and lowly Nazarene is not its inspiration. +Perhaps the personage He told to get behind Him when promising the +"kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" has more to do with it. + +The second phase of this tendency as seen in the country, is kindred +but unlike. Poverty may not be so great a bar, but moral delinquencies +are more severely visited, and the family under a cloud, through the +wrong-doing of one or more of its members, is treated very much as if +it had a perpetual pestilence. The highly respectable keep aloof. Too +often the quiet country church is not a sanctuary and place of refuge +for the victims either of their own or another's sin, a place where +the grasp of sympathy and words of encouragement are given; but rather +a place where they meet the cold critical gaze of those who are hedged +about with virtues and good connections. I hope I am wrong, but how is +it where you live, my reader? If a well-to-do thriving man of +integrity takes a fine place in your community, we all know how church +people will treat him. And what they do is all right. But society--the +world--will do the same. Is Christianity--are the followers of the +"Friend of publicans and sinners"--to do no more? + +If in contrast a drunken wretch like Lacey with his wife and children +come in town on top of a wagon-load of shattered furniture, and all +are dumped down in a back alley to scramble into the shelter of a +tenement house as best they can, do you call upon them? Do you invite +them to your pew? Do you ever urge and encourage them to enter your +church? and do you make even one of its corners homelike and inviting? + +I hope so; but, alas! that was not the general custom in Pushton, and +poor Mrs. Lacey had acquired the habit of staying at home, her +neighbors had become accustomed to call her husband a "dreadful man," +and the family "very irreligious," and as the years passed they seemed +to be more and more left to themselves. Mr. Lacey had brought his wife +from a distant town where he had met and married her. She was a timid, +retiring woman, and time and kindness were needed to draw her out. But +no one had seemingly thought it worth while, and at the time our story +takes an interest in their affairs, there was a growing isolation. + +All this had a very bad effect upon Arden. As he grew out of the +democracy of boyhood he met a certain social coldness and distance +which he learned to understand only too early, and soon returned this +treatment with increased coldness and aversion. Had it not been for +the influence of his mother and the books he read, he would have +inevitably fallen into low company. But he had promised his mother to +shun it. He saw its result in his father's conduct, and as he read, +and his mind matured, the narrow coarseness of such company became +repugnant. From time to time he was sorely tempted to leave the home +which his father made hateful in many respects, and try his fortunes +among strangers who would not associate him with a sot; but his love +for his mother kept him at her side, for he saw that her life was +bound up in him, and that he alone could protect her and his sister +and keep some sort of a shelter for them. In his unselfish devotion to +them his character was noble. In his harsh cynicism toward the world +and especially the church people, for whom he had no charity whatever +--in his utter hatred and detestation of his father--it was faulty, +though allowance must be made for him. He was also peculiar in other +respects, for his unguided reading was of a nature that fed his +imagination at the expense of his reasoning faculties. Though he +drudged in a narrow round, and his life was as hard and real as +poverty and his father's intemperance could make it, he mentally lived +and found his solace in a world as large and unreal as an uncurbed +fancy could create. Therefore his work was hurried through +mechanically in the old slovenly methods to which he had been +educated, he caring little for the results, as his father squandered +these; and when the necessary toil was over, he would lose all sense +of the sordid present in the pages of some book obtained from the +village library. As he drove his milk cart to and from town he would +sit in the chill drizzling rain, utterly oblivious of discomfort, with +a half smile upon his lips, as he pictured to himself some scene of +sunny aspect or gloomy castellated grandeur of which his own +imagination was the architect. The famous in history, the heroes and +heroines of fiction, and especially the characters of Shakespeare were +more familiar to him than the people among whom he lived. From the +latter he stood more and more aloof, while with the former he held +constant intercourse. He had little in common even with his sister, +who was of a very different temperament. But his tenderness toward his +mother never failed, and she loved him with the passionate intensity +of a nature to which love was all, but which had found little to +satisfy it on earth, and was ignorant of the love of God. + +And so the years dragged on to Arden, and hiss twenty-first birthday +made him free from his father's control as he practically long had +been, but it also found him bound more strongly than ever by his +mother's love and need to his old home life. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A DESERT ISLAND + + + +The good cry that Edith indulged in on her way to the boat was a +relief to her heart, which had long been overburdened. But the +necessity of controlling her feelings, and the natural buoyancy of +youth, enabled her by the time they reached the wharf to see that the +furniture and baggage were properly taken care of. No one could detect +the traces of grief through her thick veil, or guess from her firm, +quiet tones, that she felt somewhat as Columbus might when going in +search of a new world. And yet Edith had a hope from her country life +which the others did not share at all. + +When she was quite a child her feeble health had induced her father to +let her spend an entire summer in a farmhouse of the better class, +whose owner had some taste for flowers and fruit. These she had +enjoyed and luxuriated in as much as any butterfly of the season, and +as she romped with the farmer's children, roamed the fields and woods +in search of berries, and tumbled in the fragrant hay, health came +tingling back with a fullness and vigor that had never been lost. With +all her subsequent enjoyment, that summer still dwelt in her memory as +the halcyon period of her life, and it was with the country she +associated it. Every year she had longed for July, for then her father +would break away from business for a couple of months and take them to +a place of resort. But the fashionable watering-places were not at all +to her taste as compared with that old farmhouse, and whenever it was +possible she would wander off and make "disreputable acquaintances," +as Mrs. Allen termed them, among the farmers' and laborers' families +in the vicinity of the hotel. But by this means she often obtained a +basket of fruit or bunch of flowers that the others were glad to share +in. + +In accordance with her practical nature she asked questions as to the +habits, growth, and culture of trees and fruits, so that few city +girls situated as she had been knew as much about the products of the +garden. She had also haunted conservatories and green-houses as much +as her sisters had frequented the costly Broadway temples of fashion, +where counters are the altars to which the women of the city bring +their daily offerings; and as we have seen, a fruit store was a place +of delight to her. + +The thought that she could now raise without limit fruit, flowers, and +vegetables on her own place was some compensation even for the trouble +they had passed through and the change in their fortunes. + +Moreover she knew that because of their poverty she would have to +secure from her ground substantial returns, and that her gardening +must be no amateur trifling, but earnest work. Therefore, having found +a seat in the saloon of the boat, she drew out of her leather bag one +of her garden-books and some agricultural papers, and commenced +studying over for the twentieth time the labors proper for April. +After reading a while, she leaned back and closed her eyes and tried +to form such crude plans as were possible in her inexperience and her +ignorance of a place that she had not even seen. + +Opening her eyes suddenly she saw old Hannibal sitting near and +regarding her wistfully. + +"You are a foolish old fellow to stay with us," she said to him. "You +could have obtained plenty of nice places in the city. What made you +do it?" + +"I'se couldn't gib any good reason to de world, Miss Edie, but de one +I hab kinder satisfies my ole black heart." + +"Your heart isn't black, Hannibal." + +"How you know dat?" he asked quickly. + +"Because I've seen it often and often. Sometimes I think it is whiter +than mine. I now and then feel so desperate and wicked, that I am +afraid of myself." + +"Dere now, you'se worried and worn-out and you tinks dat's bein' +wicked." + +"No. I'm satisfied it is something worse than that. I wonder if God +does care about people who are in trouble, I mean practically, so as +to help them any?" + +"Well, I specs he does," said Hannibal vaguely. "But den dere's so +many in trouble dat I'm afeard some hab to kinder look after +demselves." Then as if a bright thought struck him, he added, "I specs +he sorter lumps 'em jes as Massa Allen did when he said he was sorry +for de people burned up in Chicago. He sent 'em a big lot ob money and +den seemed to forget all about 'em." + +Hannibal had never given much attention to religion, and perhaps was +not the best authority that Edith could have consulted. But his +conclusion seemed to secure her consent, for she leaned back wearily +and again closed her eyes, saying: + +"Yes, we are mere human atoms, lost sight of in the multitude." + +Soon her deep regular breathing showed that she was asleep, and +Hannibal muttered softly: + +"Bress de child, dat will do her a heap more good dan askin' dem deep +questions," and he watched beside her like a large faithful +Newfoundland dog. + +At last he touched her elbow and said, "We get off at de next landin', +and I guess we mus' be pretty nigh dere." + +Edith started up much refreshed and asked, "What sort of an evening is +it?" + +"Well, I'se sorry to say it's rainin' hard and berry dark." + +To her dismay she also found that it was nearly nine o'clock. The boat +had been late in starting, and was so heavily laden as to make slow +progress against wind and tide. Edith's heart sank within her at the +thought of landing alone in a strange place that dismal night. It was +indeed a new experience to her. But she donned her waterproof, and the +moment the boat touched the wharf, hurried ashore, and stood under her +small umbrella, while her household gods were being hustled out into +the drenching rain. She knew the injury that must result to them +unless they could speedily be carried into the boat-house near. At +first there seemed no one to do this save Hannibal, who at once set to +work, but she soon observed a man with a lantern gathering up some +butter-tubs that the boat was landing, and she immediately appealed to +him for help. + +"I'm not the dock-master," was the gruff reply. + +"You are a man, are you not? and one that will not turn away from a +lady in distress. If my things stand long in this rain they will be +greatly injured." + +The man thus adjured turned his lantern on the speaker, and while we +recognize the features of our acquaintance, Arden Lacey, he sees a +face on the old dock that quite startles him. If Edith had dropped +down with the rain, she could not have been more unexpected, and with +her large dark eyes flashing suddenly on him, and her appealing yet +half-indignant voice breaking in upon the waking dream with which he +was beguiling the outward misery of the night, it seemed as if one of +the characters of his fancy had suddenly become real. He who would +have passed Edith in surly unnoting indifference on the open street in +the garish light of day, now took the keenest interest in her. He had +actually been appealed to, as an ancient knight might have been, by a +damsel in distress, and he turned and helped her with a will, which, +backed by his powerful strength, soon placed her goods under shelter. +The lagging dock-master politicly kept out of the way till the work +was almost done and then bustled up and made some show of assisting in +time for any fees, if they should be offered, but Arden told him that +since he had kept out of sight so long, he might remain invisible, +which was the unpopular way the young man had. + +When the last article had been placed under shelter Edith said: + +"I appreciate your help exceedingly. How much am I to pay you for your +trouble?" + +"Nothing," was the rather curt reply. + +The appearance of a lady like Edith, with a beauty that seemed weird +and strange as he caught glimpses of her face by the fitful rays of +his lantern, had made a sudden and strong impression on his morbid +fancy and fitted the wild imaginings with which he had occupied the +dreary hour of waiting for the boat. The presence of her sable +attendant had increased these impressions. But when she took out her +purse to pay him his illusions vanished. Therefore the abrupt tone in +which he said "Nothing," and which was mainly caused by vexation at +the matter-of-fact world that continually mocked his unreal one. + +"I don't quite understand you," said Edith. "I had no intention of +employing your time and strength without remuneration." + +"I told you I was not the dock-master," said Arden rather coldly. +"He'll take all the fees you will give him. You appealed to me as a +man, and said you were in distress. I helped you as a man. Good- +evening." + +"Stay," said Edith hastily. "You seem not only a man, but a gentleman, +and I am tempted, in view of my situation, to trespass still further +on your kindness," but she hesitated a moment. + +It perhaps had never been intimated to Arden before that he was a +gentleman, certainly never in the tone with which Edith spoke, and his +fanciful, chivalric nature responded at once to the touch of that +chord. With the accent of voice he ever used toward his mother, he +said: + +"I am at your service." + +"We are strangers here," continued Edith. "Is there any place near the +landing where we can get safe, comfortable lodging?" + +"I am sorry to say there is not. The village is a mile away." + +"How can we get there?" + +"Isn't the stage down?" asked Arden of the dock-master. + +"No!" was the gruff response. + +"The night is so bad I suppose they didn't come. I would take you +myself in a minute if I had a suitable wagon." + +"Necessity knows no choice," said Edith quickly. "I will go with you +in any kind of a wagon, and I surely hope you won't leave me on this +lonely dock in the rain." + +"Certainly not," said Arden, reddening in the darkness that he could +be thought capable of such an act. "But I thought I could drive to the +village and send a carriage for you." + +"I would rather go with you now, if you will let me," said Edith +decidedly. + +"The best I have is at your service, but I fear you will be sorry for +your choice. I've only a board for a seat, and my wagon has no +springs. Perhaps I could get a low box for you to sit on." + +"Hannibal can sit on the box. With your permission I will sit with +you, for I wish to ask you some questions." + +Arden hung his lantern on a hook in front of his wagon, and helped or +partly lifted Edith over the wheel to the seat, which was simply a +board resting on the sides of the box. He turned a butter-tub upside +down for Hannibal, and then they jogged out from behind the boat-house +where he had sheltered his horses. + +This was all a new experience to Arden. He had, from his surly +misanthropy, little familiarity with society of any kind, and since as +a boy he had romped with the girls at school he had been almost a +total stranger to all women save those in his own home. Most young men +would have been awkward louts under the circumstances. But this was +not true of Arden, for he had daily been holding converse in the books +he dreamed over with women of finer clay than he could have found at +Pushton. He would have been excessively awkward in a drawing-room or +any place of conventional resort, or rather he would have been sullen +and bearish, but the place and manner in which he had met Edith +accorded with his romantic fancy, and the darkness shielded his rough +exterior from observation. + +Moreover, the presence of this flesh-and-blood woman at his side gave +him different sensations from the stately dames, or even the most +piquant maidens that had smiled upon him in the shadowy scenes of his +imagination; and when at times, as the wagon jolted heavily, she +grasped his arm for a second to steady herself, it seemed as if the +dusky little figure at his side was a sort of human electric battery +charged with that subtile fluid which some believe to be the material +life of the universe. Every now and then as they bounced over a stone, +the lantern would bob up and throw a ray on a face like those that had +looked out upon him from those plays of Shakespeare the scenes of +which are laid in Italy. + +Thus the dark, chilly, rainy night was becoming the most luminous +period of his life. Reason and judgment act slowly, but imagination +takes fire. + +But to poor Edith all was real and dismal enough, and she often sighed +heavily. To Arden each sigh was an appeal for sympathy. He had driven +as rapidly as he dared in the darkness to get her out of the rain, but +at last she said, clinging to his arm: + +"Won't you drive slowly? The jolting has given me a pain in my side." + +He was conscious of a new and peculiar sensation there also, though +not from jolting. He had been used to that in many ways all his life, +but thereafter they jogged forward on a walk through the drizzling +rain, and Edith, recovering her breath, and a sense of security, began +to asked the questions. + +"Do you know where the cottage is that was formerly owned by Mr. +Jenks?" + +"Oh, yes, it's not far from our house--between our house and the +village." Then as if a sudden thought struck him he added quickly, "I +heard it was sold; are you the owner?" + +"Yes," said Edith a little coolly. She had expected to question and +not to be questioned. And yet she was very glad she had met one who +knew about her place. But she resolved to be non-committal till she +knew more about him. + +"What sort of a house is it?" she asked after a moment. "I have never +seen it." + +"Well, it's not very large, and I fear it is somewhat out of repair-- +at least it looks so, and I should think a new roof was needed." + +Edith could not help saying pathetically, "Oh, dear! I'm so sorry." + +Arden then added hastily, "But it's a kind of a pretty place too--a +great many fruit-trees and grapevines on it." + +"So I've been told," said Edith. "And that will be its chief +attraction to me." + +"Then you are going to live there?" + +"Yes." + +Arden's heart gave a sudden throb. Then he would see this mysterious +stranger often. But he smiled half bitterly in the darkness as he +queried, "What will she appear like in the daylight?" + +Her next question broke the spell he was under utterly. They were +passing through the village and the little hotel was near, and she +naturally asked: + +"To whom am I indebted for all this kindness? I am glad to know so +much as that you are my neighbor." + +Suddenly and painfully conscious of his outward life and surroundings, +he answered briefly: + +"My name is Arden Lacey. We have a small farm a little beyond your +cottage." + +Wondering at his change of tone and manner, Edith still ventured to +ask: + +"And do you know of any one who could bring my furniture and things up +to-morrow?" + +As he sometimes did that kind of work, an impulse to see more of her +impelled him to say: + +"I suppose I can do it. I work for a living." + +"I am sure that is nothing against you," said Edith kindly. + +"You will not live long in Pushton before learning that there is +something against us," was the bitter reply. "But that need not +prevent my working for you, as I do for others. If you wish, I will +make a fire in your house early, to take off the chill and dampness, +and then go for your furniture. The people here will send you out in a +carriage." "I shall be greatly obliged if you will do so and let me +pay you." + +"Oh, certainly, I will charge the usual rates." + +"Well, then, how much for to-night?" said Edith as she stood in the +hotel door. + +"To-night is another affair," and he jumped into his wagon and rattled +away in the darkness, his lantern looking like a "will-o'-the-wisp" +that might vanish altogether. + +The landlord received Edith and her attendant with a gruff civility, +and gave her in charge of his wife, who was a bustling red-faced woman +with a sort of motherly kindness about her. + +"Why, you poor child," she said to Edith, turning her round before the +light, "you're half drowned. You must have something hot right away, +or you'll take your death o' cold," and with something of her +husband's faith in whiskey, she soon brought Edith a hot punch that +for a few moments seemed to make the girl's head spin, but as it was +followed by strong tea and toast, she felt none the worse, and danger +from the chill and wet was effectually disposed of. + +As she sat sipping her tea before a red-hot stove, she told, in answer +to the landlady's questions, how she had got up from the boat. + +"Who is this Lacey, and what is there against them?" she asked +suddenly. + +The hostess went across the hall, opened the bar-room door, and +beckoned Edith to follow her. + +In a chair by the stove sat a miserable bloated wreck of a man, +drivelling and mumbling in a drunken lethargy. + +"That's his father," said the woman in a whisper. "When he gets as bad +as that he comes here because he knows my husband is the only one as +won't turn him out of doors." + +An expression of intense disgust flitted across Edith's face, and by +the necessary law of association poor Arden sank in her estimation +through the foulness of his father's vice. + +"Is there anything against the son?" asked Edith in some alarm. "I've +engaged him to bring up my furniture and trunks. I hope he's honest." + +"Oh, yes, he's honest enough, and he'd be mighty mad if anybody +questioned that, but he's kind o' soured and ugly, and don't notice +nobody nor nothing. The son and Mrs. Lacey keep to themselves, the man +does as you see, but the daughter, who's a smart, pretty girl, tries +to rise above it all, and make her way among the rest of the girls; +but she has a hard time of it, I guess, poor child." + +"I don't wonder," said Edith, "with such a father." + +But between the punch and fatigue, she was glad to take refuge from +the landlady's garrulousness, and all her troubles in quiet sleep. + +The next morning the storm was passing away in broken masses of cloud, +through which the sun occasionally shone in April-like uncertainty. + +After an early breakfast she and Hannibal were driven in an open wagon +to what was to be her future home--the scene of unknown joys and +sorrows. + +The most memorable places, where the mightiest events of the world +have transpired, can never have for us the interest of that humble +spot where the little drama of our own life will pass from act to act +till our exit. + +Most eagerly did Edith note everything as revealed by the broad light +of day. The village, though irregular, had a general air of +thriftiness and respectability. The street through which she was +riding gradually fringed off, from stores and offices, into neat +homes, farmhouses, and here and there the abodes of the poor, till at +last, three-quarters of a mile out, she saw a rather quaint little +cottage with a roof steeply sloping and a long low porch. + +"That's your place, miss," said the driver. + +Edith's intent eyes took in the general effect with something of the +practiced rapidity with which she mastered a lady's toilet on the +avenue. + +In spite of her predisposition to be pleased, the prospect was +depressing. The season was late and patches of discolored snow lay +here and there, and were piled up along the fences. The garden and +trees had a neglected look. The vines that clambered up the porch had +been untrimmed of the last year's growth, and sprawled in every +direction. The gate hung from one hinge, and many palings were off the +fence, and all had a sodden, dingy appearance from the recent rains. +The house itself looked so dilapidated and small, in contrast with +their stately mansion on Fifth Avenue, that irrepressible tears came +into her eyes, as she murmured: + +"It will kill mother just to see it." + +Old Hannibal said in a low, encouraging tone, "It'll look a heap +better next June, Miss Edie." + +But Edith dropped her veil to hide her feelings, and shook her head. + +They got down before the rickety gate, took out the basket of +provisions which Hannibal had secured, paid the driver, who splashed +away through the mud as a boat might that had landed and left two +people on a desert island. They walked up the oozy path with hearts +about as chill and empty as the unfurnished cottage before them. + +But utter repulsiveness had been taken away by a bright fire that +Arden had kindled on the hearth of the largest room; and when lighting +it he had been so romantic as to dream of the possibility of kindling +a more sacred fire in a heart that he knew now to be as cold to him as +the chilly room in which he shivered. + +Poor Arden! If he could have seen the expression on Edith's face the +night previous, as she looked on his besotted father, he would have +cursed more bitterly than ever what he termed the blight of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +EDITH BECOMES A "DIVINITY" + + + +As the wrecked would hasten up the strand and explore eagerly in +various directions in order to gain some idea of the nature and +resources of the place where they might spend months and even years, +so Edith hurriedly passed from one room to another, looking the house +over first, as their place of refuge and centre of life, and then went +out to a spot from which she could obtain a view of the garden, the +little orchard, and the pasture field. + +The house had three rooms on the first floor, as many on the second, +and a very small attic. There was also a pretty good cellar, though it +looked to Edith like a black, dismal hole, and was full of rubbish and +old boxes. + +The entrance of the house was at the commencement of the porch, which +ran along under the windows of the large front room. Back of this was +one much smaller, and doors opened from both the apartments named into +a long and rather narrow room running the full depth of the house, and +which had been designed as the kitchen. With the families that would +naturally occupy a house of this character, it would have been the +general living-room. To Edith's eyes, accustomed to magnificent spaces +and lofty ceilings, these apartments seemed stifling dingy cells. The +walls were broken in places and discolored by smoke. With the +exception of the large room there were no places for open fires, but +only holes for stovepipes. + +"How can such a place as this ever look homelike?" + +The muddy garden, with its patches of snow, its forlorn and neglected +air, its spreading vines and the thickly standing stalks of last +year's weeds, was even less inviting. Edith had never seen the country +in winter, and the gardens of her experience were full of green, +beautiful life. The orchard looked not only gaunt and bare, but very +untidy. The previous year had been most abundant in fruit, and the +trees were left to bear at will. Therefore many of the limbs were +wholly or partly broken off, and lay scattered where they fell, or +still hung by a little of the woody fibre and bark. + +Edith came back to the fire from the survey of her future home, not +only chilled in body by the raw April winds, but more chilled in +heart. Though she had not expected summer greenness and a sweet +inviting home, yet the reality was so dreary and forbidding, from its +necessary contrast with the past, that she sank down on the floor, and +buried her head in her lap in an uncontrollable passion of grief. +Hannibal was out gathering wood to replenish the fire, and it was a +luxury to be alone a few minutes with her sorrow. + +But soon she had the consciousness that she was not alone, and looking +up, saw Arden in the door, with a grave troubled face. Hastily turning +from him, and wiping away her tears, she said rather coldly: + +"You should have knocked. The house is my home, if it is empty." + +His face changed instantly to its usual hard sullen aspect, and he +said briefly: + +"I did knock." + +"The landlady has told her all about us," he thought, "and she rejects +sympathy and fellowship from such as we are." + +But Edith's feeling had only been annoyance that a stranger had seen +her emotion, so she said quickly, "I beg your pardon. We have had +trouble, but I don't give way in this manner often. Have you brought a +load?" + +"Yes. If your servant will help me I will bring the things in." + +As he and Hannibal carried in heavy rolls of carpet and other +articles, Edith removed as far as possible the traces of her grief, +and soon began to scan by the light of day with some curiosity her +acquaintance of the previous evening. He was the very opposite to +herself in appearance. Her eyes were large and dark. He had a rather +small but piercing blue eye. His locks were light and curly, and his +beard sandy. Her hair was brown and straight. He was fully six feet +tall, while she was only of medium height. And yet Edith was not a +brunette, but possessed a complexion of transparent delicacy which +gave her the fragile appearance characteristic of so many American +girls. His face was much tamed by exposure to March winds, but his +brow was as white as hers. In his morbid tendency to shun every one, +he usually kept his eyes fixed on the ground so as to appear not to +see people, and this, with his habitual frown, gave a rather heavy and +repelling expression to his face. + +"He would make a very good representative of the laboring classes," +she thought, "if he hadn't so disagreeable an expression." + +It had only dimly dawned upon poor Edith as yet that she now belonged +to the "laboring classes." + +But her energetic nature soon reacted against idle grieving, and her +pale cheeks grew rosy, and her face full of eager life as she assisted +and directed. + +"If I only had one or two women to help me we could soon get things +settled," she said, "and I have so little time before the rest come." + +Then she added suddenly to Arden, "Haven't you sisters?" + +"My sister does not go out to service," said Arden proudly. + +"Neither do I," said the shrewd Edith, "but I would be willing to help +any one in such an emergency as I am in," and she glanced keenly to +see the effect of this speech, while she thought, "What airs these +people put on!" + +Arden's face changed instantly. Her words seemed like a ray of +sunlight falling on a place before shadowed, for the sullen frowning +expression passed into one almost of gentleness, as he said: + +"That puts things in a different light. I am sure Rose and mother both +will be willing to help you as neighbors," and he started for another +load, going around by the way of his home and readily obtaining from +his mother and sister a promise to assist Edith after dinner. + +Edith smiled to herself and said, "I have found the key to his surly +nature already." She had, and to many other natures also. Kindness and +human fellowship will unbar and unbolt where all other forces may +clamor in vain. + +Arden went away in a maze of new sensations. This one woman of all the +world beside his mother and sister that he had come to know somewhat +was to him a strange, beautiful mystery. Edith was in many respects +conventional, as all society girls are, but it was the conventionality +of a sphere of life that Arden knew only through books, and she seemed +to him utterly different from the ladies of Pushton as he understood +them from his slight acquaintance. This difference was all in her +favor, for he cherished a bitter and unreasonable prejudice against +the young girls of his neighborhood as vain, shallow creatures who +never read, and thought of nothing save dress and beaux. His own +sister in fact had helped to confirm these impressions, for while he +was fond of her and kind, he had no great admiration for her, saying +in his sweeping cynicism, "She is like the rest of them." If he had +met Edith only in the street and in conventional ways, stylishly +dressed, he would scarcely have noticed her. But her half-indignant, +half-pathetic appeal to him on the dock, the lonely ride in which she +had clung to his arm for safety, her tears, and the manner in which +she had last spoken to him, had all combined to pierce thoroughly his +shell of sullen reserve; and, as we have said, his vivid imagination +had taken fire. + +Edith and Hannibal worked hard the rest of the forenoon, and her +experienced old attendant was invaluable. Edith herself, though having +little practical knowledge of work of any kind, had vigor and natural +judgment, and her small white hands accomplished more than one would +suppose. + +So Arden wonderingly thought on his return with a second load, as he +saw her lift and handle things that he knew to be heavy. Her short, +close-fitting working-dress outlined her fine figure to advantage, and +with complexion bright and dazzling with exercise, she seemed to him +some frail fairylike creature doomed by a cruel fate to unsuited toil +and sorrows. But Edith was very matter-of-fact, and had never in all +her life thought of herself as a fairy. + +Arden went home to dinner, and by one o'clock Edith said to Hannibal: + +"There is one good thing about the place if no other. It gives one a +savage appetite. What have you got in the basket?" + +"A scrumptious lunch, Miss Edie. I told de landlady you'se used to +havin' things mighty nice, and den I found a hen's nest in de barn dis +mornin'." + +"I hope you didn't take the eggs, Hannibal," said Edith slyly. + +"Sartin I did, Miss Edie, cause if I didn't de rats would." + +"Perhaps the landlady would also if you had shown them to her." + +"Miss Edie," said Hannibal solemnly, "findin' a hen's nest is like +findin' a gold mine. It belongs to de one dat finds it." + +"I am afraid that wouldn't stand in law. Suppose we were arrested for +robbing hens' nests. That wouldn't be a good introduction to our new +neighbors." + +"Now, Miss Edie," said Hannibal, with an injured air, "you don't spec +I do a job like dat so bungly as to get cotched at it?" + +"Oh, very well," said Edith, laughing, "since you have conformed to +the morality of the age, it must be all right, and a fresh egg would +be a rich treat now that it can be eaten with a clear conscience. But, +Hannibal, I wish you would find a gold mine out in the garden." + +"I guess you'se find dat with all your readin' about strawberries and +other yarbs." + +"I hope so," said Edith with a sigh, "for I don't see how we are going +to live here year after year." + +"You'se be rich again. De men wid de long pusses ain't agoin' to look +at your black eyes for nothin'," and Hannibal chuckled knowingly. + +The color faintly deepened in Edith's cheeks, but she said with some +scorn, "Men with long purses want girls with the same. But who are +these?" + +Coming up the path they saw a tall middle-aged woman, and by her side +a young girl of about eighteen who was a marked contrast to her in +appearance. + +"Dey's his moder and sister. You will drive tings dis arternoon." + +Mrs. Lacey and her daughter entered with some little hesitancy and +embarrassment, but Edith, with the poise of an accomplished lady, at +once put them at ease by saying: + +"It is exceedingly kind of you to come and help, and I appreciate it +very much." + +"No one should refuse to be neighborly," said Mrs. Lacey quietly. + +"And to tell the truth I was delighted to come," said Rose, "the +winter has been so long and dull." + +"Oh, dear!" thought Edith, "if you find them so, what will be our +fate?" + +Mrs. Lacey undid a bundle and took out a teapot from which the steam +yet oozed faintly, and Rose undid another containing some warm +buttered biscuits, Mrs. Lacey saying, "I thought your lunch might seem +a little cold and cheerless, so I brought these along." + +"Now that _is_ kind," said Edith, so cordially that their faces +flushed with that natural pleasure which we all feel when our little +efforts for others are appreciated. To them it was intensified, for +Edith was a grand city lady, and the inroads that she made on the +biscuits, and the zest with which she sipped her tea, showed that her +words had the ring of truth. + +"Do sit down and eat, while things are nice and warm," she said to +Hannibal. "There's no use in our putting on airs now," but Hannibal +insisted on waiting upon her as when he was butler in the great +dining-room on the avenue, and when she was through, carried the +things off to the empty kitchen, and took his "bite" on a packing box, +prefacing it as his nearest approach to grace by an indignant grunt +and profession of his faith. + +"Dis ole niggah eat before her? Not much! She's quality now as much as +eber." + +But the world and Hannibal were at variance on account of a sum of +subtraction which had taken away from Edith's name the dollar symbol. + +Edith set to work, her helpers now increased to three, with renewed +zest, and from time to time stole glances at the mother and daughter +to see what the natives were like. + +They were very different in appearance: the mother looking prematurely +old, and she also seemed bent and stooping under the heavy burdens of +life. Her dark blue eyes had a weary, pathetic look, as if some sorrow +was ever before them. Her cheek bones were prominent and her cheeks +sunken, and the thin hair, brushed plainly under her cap, was streaked +with gray. Her quietness and reserve seemed rather the result of a +crushed, sad heart than of natural lack of feeling. + +The daughter was in the freshest bloom of youth, and was not unlike +the flower she was named after, when, as a dewy bud, it begins to +develop under the morning sun. Though not a beautiful girl, there was +a prettiness, a rural breeziness about her, that would cause any one +to look twice as she passed. The wind ever seemed to be in her light +flaxen curls, and her full rounded figure suggested superabundant +vitality, an impression increased by her quick, restless motions. Her +complexion reminded you of strawberries and cream, and her blue eyes +had a slightly bold and defiant expression. She felt the blight of her +father's course also, but it acted differently on her temperament. +Instead of timidly shrinking from the world like her mother, or +sullenly ignoring it like her brother, she was for going into society +and compelling it to recognize and respect her. + +"I have done nothing wrong," she said; "I insist on people treating me +in view of what I am myself," and in the sanguine spirit of youth she +hoped to carry her point. Therefore her manner was a little self- +asserting, which would not have been the case had she not felt that +she had prejudice to overcome. Unlike her brother, she cared little +for books, and had no ideal world, but lived vividly in her immediate +surroundings. The older she grew, the duller and more monotonous did +her home life seem. She had little sympathy from her brother; her +mother was a sad, silent woman, and her father a daily source of +trouble and shame. Her education was very imperfect, and she had no +resource in this, while her daily work seemed a tiresome round that +brought little return. Her mother attended to the more important +duties and gave to her the lighter tasks, which left her a good deal +of leisure. She had no work that stimulated her, no training that made +her thorough in any department of labor, however humble. From a +friend, a dressmaker in the village, she obtained a little fancy work +and sewing, and the proceeds resulting, and all her brother gave her, +she spent in dress. The sums were small enough in all truth, and yet +with the marvellous ingenuity that some girls, fond of dress, acquire, +she made a very little go a great way, and she would often appear in +toilets that were quite effective. With those of her own age and sex +in her narrow little circle, she was not a special favorite, but she +was with the young men, for she was bright, chatty, and had the knack +of putting awkward fellows at ease. She kept her little parlor as +pretty and inviting as her limited materials permitted, and with a +growing imperiousness gave the rest of the family, and especially her +father, to understand that this parlor was her domain, and that she +would permit no intrusion. Clerks from the village and farmers' sons +would occasionally drop in of an evening, though they preferred taking +her out to ride where they could see her away from her home. But the +more respectable young men, with anxious mothers and sisters, were +rather shy of poor Rose, and none seemed to care to go beyond a mild +flirtation with a girl whose father was "on the rampage," as they +expressed it, most of the time. On one occasion, when she had two +young friends spending the evening, her father came home reckless and +wild with drink, and his language toward the young men was so +shocking, and his manner in general so outrageous, that they were glad +to get away. If Arden had not come home and collared his father, +carrying him off to his room by his almost irresistible strength, +Rose's parlor might have become a sad wreck, literally as well as +socially. As it was, it seemed deserted for a long time, and she felt +very bitter about it. In her fearless frankness, her determination not +to succumb to her sinister surroundings (and perhaps from the lack of +a sensitive delicacy), she reproached the same young men when she met +them for staying away, saying, "It's a shame to treat a girl as if she +were to blame for what she can't help." + +But Rose's ambition had put on a phase against which circumstances +were too strong, and she was made to feel in her struggle to gain a +social footing that her father's leprosy had tainted her, and her +brother's "ugly, sullen disposition," as it was termed, was a +hindrance also. She had an increasing desire to get away among +strangers, where she could make her own way on her own merits, and the +city of New York seemed to her a great Eldorado, where she might find +her true career. Some very showily dressed, knowing-looking girls, +that she had met at a picnic, had increased this longing for the city. +Her mother and brother thought her restless, vain, and giddy, but she +was as good and honest a girl at heart as breathed, only her vigorous +nature chafed at repression, wanted outlets, and could not settle down +for life to cook, wash, and sew for a drunken father, a taciturn +brother, or even a mother whose companionship was depressing, much as +she was loved. + +Rose welcomed the request of her brother, as helping Edith would cause +a ripple in the current of her dull life, and give her a chance of +seeing one of the grand city ladies, without the dimness and vagueness +of distance, and she scanned Edith with a stronger curiosity than was +bestowed upon herself. The result was rather depressing to poor Rose, +for, having studied with her quick nice eye Edith's exquisite manner +and movements, she sighed to herself: + +"I'm not such a lady as this girl, and perhaps never can be." + +While Edith was very kind and cordial to the Laceys, she felt, and +made them feel, that there was a vast social distance between them. +Even practical Edith had not yet realized her poverty, and it would +take her some time to doff the manner of the condescending lady. + +They accomplished a great deal that afternoon, but it takes much time +and labor to make even a small empty house look home-like. Edith had +taken the smallest room upstairs, and by evening it was quite in order +for her occupation, she meaning to take Zell in with her. Work had +progressed in the largest upper room, which she designed for her +mother and Laura. Mrs. Lacey and Hannibal were in the kitchen getting +that arranged, they very rightly concluding that this was the +mainspring in the mechanism of material living, and should be put in +readiness at once. Arden had been instructed to purchase and bring +from the village a cooking-stove, and Hannibal's face shone with +something like delight, as by five o'clock he had a wood fire +crackling underneath a pot of water, feeling that the terra firma of +comfort was at last reached. He could now _soak_ in his favorite +beverage of tea, and make Miss Edie quite "pertlike" too when she was +tired. + +Mrs. Lacey worked silently. Rose was inclined to be chatty and draw +Edith out in regard to city life. She responded good-naturedly as long +as Rose confined herself to generalities, but was inclined to be +reticent on their own affairs. + +Before dark the Laceys prepared to return, the mother saying gravely: + +"You may feel it too lonely to stay by yourself. Our house is not very +inviting, and my husband's manner is not always what I could wish, but +such as it is, you will be welcome in it till the rest of your family +comes." + +"You are very kind to a stranger," said Edith, heartily, "but I am not +a bit afraid to stay here since I have Hannibal as protector," and +Hannibal, elated by this compliment, looked as if he might be a very +dragon to all intruders. "Moreover," continued Edith, "you have helped +me so _splendidly_ that I shall be very comfortable, and they will be +here to-morrow night." + +Mrs. Lacey bowed silently, but Rose said in her sprightly voice, from +the doorway: + +"I'll come and help you all day to-morrow." + +Arden was still to bring one more load. The setting sun, with the +consistency of an April day, had passed into a dark cloud which soon +came driving on with wind and rain, and the thick drops dashed against +the windows as if thrown from a vast syringe, while the gutter gurgled +and groaned with the sudden rush of water. + +"Oh, dear! how dismal!" sighed Edith, looking out in the gathering +darkness. Then she saw that the loaded wagon had just stopped at the +gate, and in dim outline Arden sat in the storm as if he had been a +post. "It's too bad," she said impatiently, "my things will all get +wet." After a moment she added: "Why don't he come in? Don't he know +enough to come in out of the rain?" + +"Well, Miss Edie, he's kind o' quar," said Hannibal, "I'se jes done +satisfied he's quar." + +But the shower ceased suddenly, and Arden dismounted, secured his +horses, and soon appeared at the door with a piece of furniture. + +"Why, it's not wet," said Edith with surprise. + +"I saw appearances of rain, and so borrowed a piece of canvas at the +dock." + +"But you didn't put the canvas over yourself," said Edith, looking at +his dripping form, grateful enough now to bestow a little kindness +without the idea of policy. "As soon as you have brought in the load I +insist on your staying and taking a cup of tea." + +He gave his shoulders an indifferent shrug, saying, "A little cold +water is the least of my troubles." Then he added, stealing a timid +glance at her, "But you are very kind. People seldom think of their +teamsters." + +"The more shame to them then," said Edith. "I at least can feel a +kindness if I can't make much return. It was very good of you to +protect my furniture, and I appreciate your care. Besides your mother +and sister have been helping me all the afternoon, and I am oppressed +by my obligations to you all." + +"I am sorry you feel that way," he said briefly, and vanished in the +darkness after another load. + +Soon all was safely housed, and he said, about to depart, "There is +one more load; I will bring that to-morrow." + +From the kitchen she called, "Stay, your tea will be ready in a +moment." + +"Do not put yourself to that truble," he answered, at the same time +longing to stay. "Mother will have supper ready for me." He was so +diffident that he needed much encouragement, and moreover he was +morbidly sensitive. + +But as she turned she caught his wistful glance, and thought to +herself, "Poor fellow! he's cold and hungry." With feminine shrewdness +she said, "Now, Mr. Lacey, I shall feel slighted if you don't take a +cup of my tea, for see, I have made it myself. It's the one thing +about housekeeping that I understand. Your mother brought me a nice +cup at noon, and I enjoyed it very much. I am going to pay that debt +now to you." + +"Well--if you really wish it"--said Arden hesitatingly, with another +of his bright looks, and color even deeper than the ruddy firelight +warranted. + +"My conscience!" thought Edith, "how suddenly his face changes. He is +'quar,' as Hannibal says." But she settled matters by saying, "I shall +feel hurt if you don't. You must let there be at least some show of +kindness on my part, as well as on yours and your friends'." + +There came in again a delicate touch of that human fellowship which he +had never found in the world, and had seemingly repelled, but which +his soul was thirsting for with an intensity never so realized before, +and this faintest semblance of human companionship and sympathy seemed +inexpressibly sweet to his sore and lonely heart. + +He took the cup from her as if it had been a sacrament, and was about +to drink it standing, but she placed a chair at the table and said: + +"No, sir, you must sit down there in comfort by the fire." + +He did so as if in a dream. The whole scene was taking a powerful hold +on his imagination. + +"Hannibal," she cried, raising her voice in a soft, bird-like call, +and from the dim kitchen whence certain spluttering sounds had +preceded him, Hannibal appeared with a heaping plate of buttered +toast. + +"With your permission," she said, "I will sit down and take a cup of +tea with you, in a neighborly way, for I wish to ask you some more +questions, and tea, you know, is a great incentive to talk," and she +took a chair on the opposite side of the table, while Hannibal stood a +little in the background to wait on them with all the formality of the +olden time. + +The wood fire blazed and crackled, and threw its flickering light over +Edith's fair face, and intensified her beauty, as her features gleamed +out, or faded, as the flames rose and fell. Hannibal stood motionless +behind her chair as if he might have been an Ethiopian slave attendant +on a young sultana. To Arden's aroused imagination, it seemed like one +of the scenes of his fancy, and he was almost afraid to move or speak, +lest all should vanish, and he find himself plodding along the dark +muddy road. + +"What is the matter?" she asked curiously. "Why don't you drink your +tea?" + +"It all seems as strange and beautiful as a fairy tale," he said, +looking at her earnestly. + +Her hearty laugh and matter-of-fact tone dispelled his illusion, as +she said: + +"It's all dreadfully real to me. I feel as if I had done more work to- +day than in all my life before, and we have only made a beginning. I +want to ask you about the place and the garden, and how to get things +done," and she plied him well with the most practical questions. + +Sometimes he answered a little incoherently, for through them all he +saw a face full of strange weird beauty, as the firelight flickered +upon it, and gave a star-like lustre to the large dark eyes. + +Hannibal, in the background, grinned and chuckled silently, as he saw +Arden's dazed, wondering admiration, saying to himself, "Dey ain't +used to such young ladies as mine, up here--it kind o' dazzles 'em." + +At last, as if breaking away from the influence of a spell, Arden +suddenly rose, turning upon Edith one of those warm, bright looks that +he sometimes gave his mother, and said, "You have been very kind; +good-night," and was gone in a moment. But the night was luminous +about him. Along the muddy road, in the old barn as he cared for his +horses, in his poor little room at home, to which he soon retired, he +saw only the fair face of Edith, with the firelight playing upon it, +with the vividness of one looking directly upon an exquisite cabinet +picture, and before that picture his heart was inclined to bow, in the +most devoted homage. + +Edith's only comment was, "He is 'quar,' Hannibal, as you said." + +Wearied with the long day's work, she soon found welcome and dreamless +rest. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MRS. ALLEN'S POLICY + + + +True to her promise, Rose helped Edith all the next day, and while she +worked, the frank-hearted girl poured out the story of her troubles, +and Edith came to have a greater respect and sympathy for her "kind +and humble neighbors" as she characterized them in her own mind. Still +with her familiarity with the farming class, kept up since her summer +in the country as a child, she made a broad distinction between them +and the mere laborer. Moreover, the practical girl wished to +conciliate the Laceys and every one else she could, for she had a +presentiment that there were many trials before them, and that they +would need friends. She said in answer to Rose: + +"I never realized before that the world was so full of trouble. We +have seen plenty of late." + +"One can bear any kind of trouble better than a daily shame," said +Rose bitterly. + +For some unexplained reason Edith thought of Zell and Mr. Van Dam with +a sudden pang. + +Arden brought his last load and watched eagerly for her appearance, +fearing that there might be some great falling off in the vision of +the past evening. + +But to his eyes the girl he was learning to glorify presented as fair +an exterior in the garish day, and the reality of her beauty became a +fixed fact in his consciousness, and his fancy had already begun to +endow her with angelic qualities. With all her vanity, even sorrowful +Edith would have laughed heartily at his ideal of her. It was one of +the hardest ordeals of his life to take the money she paid him, and +she saw and wondered at his repugnance. + +"You will never get rich," she said, "if you are so prodigal in work, +and so spare in your charges." + +"I would rather not take anything," he said dubiously, holding the +money, as if it were a coal of fire, between his thumb and finger. + +"Then I must find some one who will do business on business +principles," she said coldly. "If the fellow has any sentimental +nonsense about him, I'll soon cure that," she thought. + +Arden colored, thrust his money carelessly into his pocket as if it +were of no account, and said briefly, "Good-morning." + +But when alone he put the money in the innermost part of his +pocketbook, and when his father asked him for some of it, he sternly +answered: + +"No, sir, not a cent." Nor did he spend it himself; why he kept it +could scarcely have been explained. He was simply acting according to +the impulses of a morbid romantic nature that had been suddenly and +deeply impressed. The mother's quick eye detected a change in him and +she asked: + +"What do you think of our new neighbor?" + +"Mother," said he fervently, "she is an angel." + +"My poor boy," said she anxiously, "take care. Don't let your fancy +run away with you." + +"Oh," said he with assumed indifference, "one can have a decided +opinion of a good thing as well as a bad thing, without making a fool +of one's self." + +But the mother saw with a half-jealous pang that her son's heart was +awaking to a new and stronger love than her own. + +Mrs. Allen with Zell and Laura was to come by the boat that evening, +and Edith's heart yearned after them as her kindred. Now that she had +had a little experience of loneliness and isolation, she deeply +regretted her former harshness and impatience, saying to herself, "It +is harder for them than for me. They don't like the country, and don't +care anything about a garden," and she purposed to be very gentle and +long-suffering. + +If good resolutions were only accomplished certainties as soon as +made, how different life would be! + +Arden had ordered a close carriage that she might go down and meet +them, and had agreed to bring up their trunks and boxes in his large +wagon. + +The boat fortunately landed under the clear starlight on this +occasion, and feeble Mrs. Allen was soon seated comfortably in the +carriage. But her every breath was a sigh, and she regarded the +martyrs as a favored class in comparison with herself. Laura still had +her look of dreary apathy; but Zell's face wore an expression of +interest in the new scenes and experiences, and she plied Edith with +many questions as she rode homeward. Mrs. Allen brought a servant up +with her who was condemned to ride with Arden, much to their mutual +disgust. + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Edith as they rode along. "It's a dreadful come- +down for us all and I don't know how you are going to stand it, +mother." + +Mrs. Allen's answer was a long inarticulate sigh. + +When she reached the house and entered the room where supper was +awaiting them, she glanced around as a prisoner might on being thrust +into a cell in which years must be spent, and then she dropped into a +chair, sobbing-- + +"How different--how different from all my past!" and for a few moments +they all cried together. As with Edith at first, so now again the new +home was baptized with tears as if dedicated to sorrow and trouble. + +Edith then led them upstairs to take off their things, and Mrs. Allen +had a fresh outburst of sorrow as she recognized the contrast between +this bare little chamber and her luxurious sleeping-apartment and +dressing-room in the city. Laura soon regained her air of weary +indifference, but Zell, hastily throwing off her wraps, came down to +explore, and to question Hannibal. + +"Bress you, chile, it does my eyes good to see you all, ony you'se +musn't take on as if we'se all dyin' with slow 'sumption." + +Zell put her hand on the black's shoulder and looked up into his face +with a wonderfully gentle and grateful expression, saying: + +"You are as good as gold Hannibal. I am so glad you stayed with us, +for you seem like one of the best bits of our old home. Never mind, +I'll have a grander house again soon, and you shall have a stiffer +necktie and higher collar than ever." + +"Bress you," said Hannibal with moist eyes, "it does my ole black +heart good to hear you. But, Miss Zell, I say," he added in a loud +whisper, "when is it gwine to be?" + +"Oh!" said poor Zell, asked for definiteness, "some day," and she +passed into the large room where Arden was just setting down a trunk. + +"Don't leave it there in the middle of the floor," she said sharply. +"Take it upstairs." + +Arden suddenly straightened himself as if he had received a slight cut +from a whip, and turned his sullen face full on Zell, and it seemed +very repulsive to the imperious little lady. + +"Don't you hear me?" she asked sharply. + +"Perhaps it would be well for you not to ask favors of your neighbors +in that tone," he replied curtly. + +Edith, coming down, saw the situation and said with oil in her voice, +"You must excuse my sister, Mr. Lacey. She does not know who you are. +Hannibal will assist with the trunks if you will be so kind as to take +them upstairs." + +"She is different from the rest," thought Arden, readily complying +with her request. + +But Zell said as she turned away, loud enough for him to hear, "What +airs these common country people do put on!" Zell might have loaded +Arden's wagon with gold, and he would not have lifted a finger for her +after that. If he had known that Edith's kindness had been half +policy, his face would have been more sullen and forbidding than ever. +But she dwelt glorified and apart in his consciousness, and if she +could only maintain that ideal supremacy, he would be her slave. But +in his morbid sensitiveness she would have to be very careful. The +practical girl at this time did not dream of his fanciful imagining +about her, but she was bent on securing friends and helpers, however +humble might be their station, and she had shrewdly and quickly +learned how to manage Arden. + +The next day was spent by the family in getting settled in their +narrow quarters, and a dreary time they had of it. It was a long rainy +day, the roof leaked badly, and every element of discomfort seemed let +loose upon them. + +Mrs. Allen had a nervous headache, and one of her worst touches of +dyspepsia, and Zell and Laura were so weary and out of sorts that +little could be accomplished. Between the tears and sighs within, and +the dripping rain without, Edith looked back on the first two days, +when the Laceys were helping her, as bright in contrast. But Mrs. +Allen was already worrying over the Laceys' connection with their +settlement in the neighborhood. + +"We shall be associated with these low people," said she to Edith +querulously. "Your first acquaintances in a new place are of great +importance." + +Edith was not ready any such association, and she felt that there was +force in her mother's words. She had thought of the Laceys chiefly in +the light of their usefulness. + +She was glad when the long miserable day came to a close, and she +welcomed the bright sunshine of the following morning, hoping it would +dispel some of the gloom that seemed gathering round them more thickly +than ever. + +After partaking of a rather meagre breakfast, for Hannibal's materials +were running low, Edith pushed back her chair, and said: + +"I move we hold a council of war, and look the situation in the face. +We are here, and we've got to live here. Now what shall we do? I +suppose we must go to work at something that will bring in money." + +"Go to work, and for money!" said Mrs. Allen sharply from her +cushioned arm-chair. "I hope we haven't ceased to be ladies." + +"But, mother, we can't live forever on the title. The 'butchers, +bakers, and candlestick-makers' won't supply us long on that ground. +What did the lawyer, who settled father's estate, say before you +left?" + +"Well," replied Mrs. Allen vaguely, "he said he had placed to our +credit in--Bank, what there was left, and he gave me a check-book and +talked economy as men always do. Your poor father, after losing +hundreds at the club, would talk economy the next morning, in the most +edifying way. He also said that there was some of that hateful stock +remaining that ruined your father, but that it was of uncertain value, +and he could not tell how much it would realize, but he would sell it +and place the proceeds also to our credit. It will amount to +considerable, I think, and it may rise. + +"Now, girls," continued Mrs. Allen, settling herself back among the +cushions, and resting the forefinger of her right hand impressively on +the palm of the left, "this is the proper line of policy for us to +pursue. I hope in all these strange changes I am still mistress of my +own family. You certainly don't think that I expect to stay in this +miserable hovel all my life. If you two girls, Laura and Edith, had +made the matches you might, we should still be living on the avenue. +But I certainly cannot permit you now to spoil every chance of getting +out of this slough. You may not be able to do as well as you could +have done, but if you are once called working-girls, what can you do? + +"In the first place we must go into the best society of this town. Our +position warrants it of course. Therefore, for heaven's sake don't let +it get abroad that we are associating with these drunken Laceys."(Mrs. +Allen in her rapid generalization gave the impression that the entire +family were habitually "on the rampage," and Edith remembered with +misgivings that she had drunk tea with Arden Lacey on that very spot.) +"Moreover," continued Mrs. Allen, "there is a large summer hotel near +here, and 'my friends' have promised to come and see me this summer. +"We must try to present an air of pretty, rural elegance, and your +young gentleman friends from the city will soon be dropping in. Then +Gus Elliot and Mr. Van Dam continue very kind and cordial, I am sure. +Zell, though so young, may soon become engaged to Mr. Van Dam, and +it's said he is very rich--" + +"I can't get up much faith in these two men," interrupted Edith, "and +as for Gus, he can't support himself." + +"I hope you don't put Gus Elliot and my friend on the same level," +said Zell indignantly. + +"I don't know where to put 'your friend,'" said Edith curtly. "Why +doesn't he speak out? Why doesn't he do something open, manly, and +decided? It seems as if he can see nothing and think of nothing but +your pretty face. If he would become engaged to you and frankly take +the place of lover and brother, he might be of the greatest help to +us. But what has he done since father's death but pet and flatter you +like an infatuated old--" + +"Hush!" cried Zell, blazing with anger and starting up; "no one shall +speak so of him. What more has Gus Elliot done?" + +"He has been useful as my errand boy," said Edith contemptuously, "and +that's all he amounts to as far as I'm concerned. I am disgusted with +men. Who in all our trouble has been noble and knightly toward us?--" + +"Be still, children; stop your quarrelling," broke in Mrs. Allen. "You +have got to take the world as you find it. Men of our day don't act +like knights any more than they dress like them. The point I wish you +to understand is that we must keep every hold we have on our old life +and society. Next winter some of my friends will invite you to visit +them in the city and then who knows what may happen?"--and she nodded +significantly. Then she added, with a regretful sigh, "What chances +you girls have had! There's Cheatem, Argent, Livingston, Pamby, and +last and best, Goulden, who might have been secured if Laura had been +more prompt, and a host of others. Edith had better have taken Mr. +Fox, even, than have had all this happen." + +An expression of disgust came out on Edith's face, and she said, "It +seems to me that I would rather go to work than take any of them." + +"You don't know anything about work," said Mrs. Allen. "It's a great +deal easier to marry a fortune than to make one, and a woman can't +make a fortune. Marrying well is the only chance you girls have now, +and it's my only chance to live again as a lady ought, and I want to +see to it that nothing is done to spoil these chances." + +Laura listened with a dull assent, conscious that she would marry any +man _now_ who would give her an establishment and enable her to sweep +past Mr. Goulden in elegant scorn. Zell listened, purposing to marry +Mr. Van Dam, though Edith's words raised a vague uneasiness in her +mind, and she longed to see him again, meaning to make him more +explicit. Edith listened with a cooling adherence to this familiar +faith and doctrine of the world in which the mother had brought up her +children. She had a glimmering perception that the course indicated +was not sound in general, or best for them in particular. + +"And now," continued Mrs. Allen, becoming more definite, "we must have +a new roof put on the house right away, or we shall all be drowned +out, and the house must be painted, a door-bell put in, and fences and +things generally put in order. We must fit this room up as a parlor, +and we can use the little room there as a dining and sitting-room. +Laura and I will take the chamber over the kitchen, and the one over +this can be kept as a spare room, so that if any of our city friends +come out to see us, they can stay all night." + +"Oh, mother, the proposed arrangements will make us all uncomfortable, +you especially," remonstrated Edith. + +"No matter, I've set my heart on our getting back to the old life, and +we must not stop at trifles." + +"But are you sure we have money to spare for all these improvements?" +continued Edith anxiously. + +"Oh, yes, I think so," said Mrs. Allen indefinitely. "And as your poor +father used to say, to spend money is often the best way to get +money." + +"Well, mother," said Edith dubiously, "I suppose you know best, but it +doesn't look very clear to me. There seems nothing definite or certain +that we can depend on." + +"Perhaps not to-day, but leave all to me. Some one will turn up, who +will fill your eye and fill your hand, and what more could you ask in +a husband? But you must not be too fastidious. These difficult girls +are sure to take up with 'crooked sticks' at last." (Mrs. Allen's +views as to straight ones were not original.) "Leave all to me. I will +tell you when the right ones turn up." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WAITING FOR SOME ONE TO TURN UP + + + +And so the girls were condemned to idleness and ennui, and they all +came to suffer from these as from a dull toothache, especially Laura +and Zell. Edith had great hopes from her garden, and saw the snow +finally disappear and the mud dry up, as the imprisoned inmates of the +ark might have watched the abatement of the waters. + +On the afternoon of the council wherein Mrs. Allen had marked out the +family policy, Edith and Zell walked to the village, and going to one +of the leading stores, made arrangements with the proprietor to have +his wagon stop daily at their house for orders. They also asked him to +send them a carpenter. They made these requests with the manner of +olden time, when money seemed to flow from a full fountain, and the +man was very polite, thinking he had gained profitable customers. + +While they were absent, Rose stepped in to see if she could be of any +further help. Mrs. Allen surmised who she was and resolved to snub her +effectually. To Rose's question as to their need of assistance, she +replied frigidly, that they had two servants now, and did not wish to +employ any more help. + +Rose colored, bit her lip, then said with an open smile: + +"You are under mistake. I am Miss Lacey, and helped your daughter the +first two days after she came." + +"Oh! ah! Miss Lacey. I beg your pardon," said Mrs. Allen, still more +distantly. "My daughter Edith is out. Did she not pay you?" + +Rose's face became scarlet, and rising hastily she said, "Either I +misunderstand, or am greatly misunderstood. Good-afternoon." + +Mrs. Allen slightly inclined her head, while Laura took no notice of +her at all. When she was gone, Mrs. Allen said complacently, "I think +we will see no more of that bold-faced fly-away creature. The idea of +her thinking that we would live on terms of social equality with +them!" + +Laura's only reply was a yawn, but at last she got up, put on her hat +and shawl and went out to walk a little on the porch. Arden, who was +returning home with his team, stopped a moment to inquire if there was +anything further that he could do. He hoped the lady he saw on the +porch was Edith, and the wish to see her again led him to think of any +excuse that would take him to the house. + +As Laura turned to come toward him, he surmised that it was another +sister, and was disappointed and embarrassed, but it was too late to +turn back, though she scarcely appeared to heed him. + +"I called to ask Miss Edith if I could do anything more that would be +of help to her," he said diffidently. + +Giving him a cold, careless glance, Laura said, "I believe my sister +wants some work done around the house before long. I will tell her +that you were here looking for employment, and I have no doubt she +will send for you if she needs your services," and Laura turned her +back on him and continued her walk. + +He whirled about on his heel as if she had struck him, and when he got +home his mother noted that his face looked more black and sullen than +she had ever seen it before. Rose was open and strong in her +indignation, saying: + +"Fine neighbors you have introduced us to! Nice return they make for +all our kindness; not that I begrudge it. But I hate to see people get +all out of you they can, and then about the same as slap your face and +show you the door." + +"Did you see Miss Edith?" asked Arden quickly. + +"No, I saw the old lady and a proud pale-faced girl who took no more +notice of me than if I had come for cold victuals." + +"I suppose they have heard," said Arden dejectedly. + +"They have heard nothing against me, nor you, nor mother," said Rose +hotly. "If I ever see that Miss Edith again, I will give her a piece +of my mind." + +"You will please do nothing of the kind," said her brother. "She has +not turned her back on you. Wait till she does. We are the last people +to condemn one for the sake of another." + +"I guess they are all alike; but, as you say, it's fair to give her a +chance," answered Rose quietly. + +With his habit of reticence he said nothing about his own experience. +But it was a cruel shock that those connected with the one who was +becoming the inspiration of his dreams should be so contemptible, as +he regarded them, and as we are all apt to regard those who treat us +with contempt. His faith in her was also shaken, and he resolved that +she must "send for him," feeling her need, before he would go near her +again. But, after all, his ardent fancy began to paint her more gentle +and human on the background of the narrow pride shown by the others. +He longed for some absolute proof that she was what he believed her, +but was too proud to put himself in the way of receiving it. + +When Edith heard how the Lacey acquaintance had been nipped in the +bud, she said with honest shame, "It's too bad, after all their +kindness." + +"It was the only thing to be done," said Mrs. Allen. "It is better for +such people to talk against you than to be claiming you as neighbors, +and all that. It would give us a very bad flavor with the best people +of the town." + +"I only wish then," said Edith, "that I had never let them do anything +for me. I shall hate to meet them again," and she sedulously avoided +them. + +The next day a carpenter appeared after breakfast, and seemed the most +affably suggestive man in the world. "Of course he would carry out +Mrs. Allen's wishes immediately," and he showed her several other +improvements that might be made at the same time, and which would cost +but little more while they were about it. + +"But how much _will_ it cost?" asked Edith directly. + +"Oh, well," said the man vaguely, "it's hard to estimate on this kind +of jobbing work." Then turning to Mrs. Allen, he said with great +deference, "I assure you, madam, I will do it well, and be just as +reasonable as possible." + +"Certainly, certainly," said Mrs. Allen majestically, pleased with the +deference, "I suppose that is all we ought to ask." + +"I think there ought to be something more definite as to price and +time of completing the work," still urged Edith. + +"My dear," said Mrs. Allen with depressing dignity, "pray leave these +matters to me. It is not expected that a young lady like yourself +should understand them." + +Mrs. Allen had become impressed with the idea that if they ever +reached the haven of Fifth Avenue again, she must take the helm and +steer their storm-tossed bark. As we have seen before, she was capable +of no small degree of exertion when the motive was to attain position +and supremacy in the fashionable world. She was great in one direction +only--the one to which she had been educated, and to which she devoted +her energies. + +The man chuckled as he went away. "Lucky I had to deal with the old +fool rather than that sharp black-eyed girl. By Jove! but they are a +handsome lot though; only they look like the houses we build nowadays +--more paint and finish than solid timber." + +The next day there were three or four mechanics at work, and the job +was secured. The day following there were only two, and the next day +none. Edith sent word by the grocer, asking what was the matter. The +following day one man appeared, and on being questioned, said "the +boss was very busy, lots of jobs on hand." + +"Why did he take our work then?" asked Edith indignantly. + +"Oh, as to that, the boss takes every job he can get," said the man +with a grin. + +"Well, tell the boss I want to see him," she replied sharply. + +The man chuckled and went on with his work in a snail-like manner, as +if that were the only job "the boss" had, or was like to have, and he +must make the most of it. + +The house was hers, and Edith felt anxious about it, and indeed it +seemed that they were going to great expense with no certain return in +view. That night one corner of the roof was left open and rain came in +and did not a little damage. + +Loud and bitter were the complaints of the family, but Edith said +little. She was too incensed to talk about it. The next day it +threatened rain and no mechanics appeared. Donning her waterproof and +thick shoes, she was soon in the village, and by inquiry found the +man's shop. He saw her coming and dodged out. + +"Very well, I will wait," said Edith, sitting down on a box. + +The man, finding she would not go away, soon after bustled in, and was +about to be very polite, but Edith interrupted him with a question +that was like a blow between the eyes: + +"What do you mean, sir, by breaking your word?" + +"Great press of work just now, Miss Allen--" + +"That is not the question," interrupted Edith. "You said you would do +our work immediately. You took it with that distinct understanding; +and, because you have been false to your word, we have suffered much +loss. You knew the roof was not all covered. You knew it when it +rained last night, but the rain did not fall on you, so I suppose you +did not care. But is a person who breaks his word in that style a +gentleman? Is he even a man, when he breaks it to a lady, who has no +brother or husband to protect her interests?" + +The man became very red. He was accustomed, as his workman said, to +secure every job he could, then divide and scatter his men so as to +keep everything going, but at a slow, provoking rate, that wore out +every one's patience save his own. He was used to the annual fault- +finding and grumbling of the busy season, and bore it as he would a +northeast storm as a disagreeable necessity, and quite prided himself +on the good-natured equanimity with which he could stand his +customers' scoldings; and the latter had become so accustomed to being +put off that they endured it also as they would a northeaster, and +went into improvements and building as they might visit a dentist. + +But when Edith turned her scornful face and large indignant eyes full +upon him, and asked practically what he meant by lying to her, and +said that to treat a woman so proved him less than a man, he saw his +habit of "putting off" in a new light. At first he was a little +inclined to bluster, but Edith interrupted him sharply: + +"I wish to know in a word what you will do. If that roof is not +completed and made tight to-day, I will put the matter in a lawyer's +hands and make you pay damages." + +This would place the man in an unpleasant business aspect, so he said +gruffly: + +"I will send some men right up." + +"And I will take no action till I see whether they come," said Edith +significantly. + +They came, and in a few days the work was finished. But a bill double +the amount they expected came promptly, also. They paid no attention +to it. + +In the meantime Edith had asked the village merchant, who supplied +them with provisions, and who had also become a sort of agent for +them, to send a man to plow the garden. The next day a slouchy old +fellow, with two melancholy shacks of horses that might well tremble +at the caw of a crow, was scratching the garden with a worn-out plow +when she came down to breakfast. He had already made havoc in the +flower borders, and Edith was disgusted with the outward aspect of +himself and team to begin with. But when in her morning slippers she +had picked her way daintily to a point from which she could look into +the shallow furrows, her vexation knew no bounds. She had been reading +about gardening of late, and she had carefully noted how all the +writers insisted on deep plowing and the thorough loosening of the +soil. This man's furrows did not average six inches, and with a +frowning brow, and dress gathered up, she stood perched on a little +stone, like a bird that had just alighted with ruffled plumage, while +Zell was on the porch laughing at her. The man with his gaunt team +soon came round again opposite her, with slow automatic motion as if +the whole thing were one crazy piece of mechanism. The man's head was +down, and he paid no heed to Edith. The rim of his old hat flapped +over his face, the horses jogged on with dropping head and ears, as if +unable to hold them up, and all seemed going down, save the plow. This +light affair skimmed and scratched along the ground like the sharpened +sticks of oriental tillage. + +"Stop!" cried Edith sharply. + +"Whoa!" shouted the man, and he turned toward Edith a pair of watery +eyes, and a face that suggested nothing but snuff. + +"Who sent you here?" asked Edith in the same tone. + +"Mr. Hard, mum." (Mr. Hard was the merchant who was acting as their +agent.) + +"Am I to pay you for this work, or Mr. Hard?" + +"I guess you be, mum." + +"Who's to be suited with this work, you, Mr. Hard, or I?" + +"I hain't thought nothin' about that." + +"Do you mean to say that it makes no difference whether I am suited or +not?" + +"What yer got agin the work?" + +"I want my garden plowed, not scratched. You don't plow half deep +enough, and you are injuring the shrubs and flowers in the borders." + +"I guess I know more about plowin' than you do. Gee up thar!" to the +horses, that seemed inclined to be Edith's allies by not moving. + +"Stop!" she cried, "I will not pay you a cent for this work, and wish +you to leave this garden instantly." + +"Mr. Hard told me to plow this garding and I'm a-goin' to plow it. I +never seed the day's work I didn't git paid for yit, and you'll pay +for this. Git up thar, you cussed old critters," and the man struck +the horses sharply with a lump of dirt. Away went the crazy rattling +old automaton round and round the garden in spite of all she could do. + +She was half beside herself with vexation, which was increased by +Zell's convulsed laughter on the porch, but she stormed at the old +plowman as vainly as a robin might remonstrate with a windmill. + +"Mr. Hard told me to plow it, and I'm a-goin' to plow it," said the +human part of the mechanism as it again passed, without stopping, the +place where Edith stood. + +Utterly baffled, Edith rushed into the house and hastily swallowed a +cup of coffee. She was too angry to eat a mouthful. + +Zell followed with her hand upon her side, which was aching from +laughter, and as soon as she found her voice said: + +"It was one of the most touchingly beautiful rural scenes I ever +looked upon. I never had so close and inspiring a view of one of the +'sons of the soil' before." + +"Yes," snapped Edith, "he is literally a clod." + +"I can readily see," continued Zell, in a mock-sentimental tone, "how +noble and refining a sphere the 'garding' (as your friend, out there, +terms it) must be, even for women. In the first place there are your +associates in. labor--" + +"Stop!" interrupted Edith sharply. "You all leave everything for me to +do, but I won't be teased and tormented in the bargain." + +"But really," continued the incorrigible Zell, "I have been so much +impressed by the first scene in the creation of your Eden, which I +have just witnessed, that I am quite impatient for the second. It may +be that our sole acquaintances in this delightful rural retreat, the +'drunken Laceys,' as mother calls them, will soon insist on becoming +inspired with the spirit of the corn they raise in our arbor." + +Edith sprang up from the table and went to her room. + +"Shame on you, Zell," said Mrs. Allen sharply, but Laura was too +apathetic to scold. + +Impulsive Zell soon relented, and when Edith came down a few moments +later in walking trim, and with eyes swollen with unshed tears, Zell +threw her arms around her neck and said: + +"Forgive your naughty little sister." + +But Edith repulsed her angrily, and started toward the village. + +"I do hate to see people sullenly hoard up things," said Zell +snappishly. Then she dawdled about the house, yawning and saying +fretfully, "I do wish I knew what to do with myself." + +Laura reclined on the sofa with a novel, but Zell was not fond of +reading. Her restless nature craved continual activity and excitement, +but it was part of Mrs. Allen's policy that they should do nothing. + +"Some one may call," she said, "and we must be ready to receive them," +but at that season of the year, when roads were muddy, there was but +little social visiting in the country. + +So, consumed with ennui, Zell listened to the pounding of the +carpenters overhead, and watched the dogged old plowman go round the +small garden till it was all scratched over, and then the whole crazy +mechanism rattled off to parts unknown. The two servants did not leave +her even the recourse of housework, of which she was naturally fond. + +Edith went straight to Mr. Hard, and was so provoked that she scarcely +avoided the puddles in her determined haste. + +Mr. Hard looked out upon his customers with, cold, hard little eyes +that changed their expression only in growing more cold and hard. The +rest of his person seemed all bows, smirks, and smiles, but it was +noticed that these latter diminished and his eyes grew harder as he +wished to remind some lagging patron that his little account needed +settling. This thrifty citizen of Pushton was soon in polite +attendance on Edith, but was rather taken back when she asked sharply +what he meant by sending such a good-for-nothing man to plow her +garden. + +"Well, Miss Allen," he said, his eyes growing harder but his manner +more polite, "old Gideon does such little jobs around, and I thought +he was just the one." + +"Does he plow your garden?" asked Edith abruptly. + +"I keep a gardener," said Mr. Hard with some dignity. + +"I believe it would pay me to do the same," said Edith, "if I could +find one on whom I could depend. The man you sent was very impudent. I +told him the work didn't suit me--that he didn't plow half deep +enough, and that he must leave. But he just kept right on, saying you +sent him, and he would plow it, and he injured my flower borders +besides. Therefore he must look to you for payment." (Mr. Hard's eyes +grew very hard at this.) "Because I am a woman I am not going to be +imposed upon. Now do you know of a man who can really plow my garden? +If not, I must look elsewhere. I had hoped when you took our business +you would have some interest in seeing that we were well served." + +Mr. Hard, with eyes like two flint pebbles, made a low bow and said +with impressive dignity: + +"It is my purpose to do so. There is Mr. Skinner, he does plowing." + +"I don't want Mr. Skinner," said Edith impatiently, "I don't like his +name in reference to plowing." + +"Oh! ah! excellent reason; very good, Miss Allen. Well, there's Mr. +McTrump, a Scotchman, who has a small greenhouse and nursery, he looks +after gardens for some people." + +"I will go and see him," said Edith, taking his address. + +As she plodded off to find his place, she sighed, "Oh, dear! it's +dreadful to have no men in the family. That Arden Lacey might have +helped me so much, if mother was not so particular. I fear we are all +on the wrong track, throwing away substantial and present good for +uncertainties." + +Mr. McTrump was a little man with a heavy sandy beard and such bushy +eyebrows and hair that he reminded Edith of a Scotch terrier. But her +first glance around convinced her that he was a gardener. Neatness, +order, thrift, impressed her the moment she opened his gate, and she +perceived that he was already quite advanced in his spring work. +Smooth seed-sown beds were emerging from winter's chaos. Crocuses and +hyacinths were in bloom, tulips were budding, and on a sunny slope in +the distance she saw long green rows of what seemed some growing crop. +She determined if possible to make this man her ally, or by stratagem +to gain his secret of success. + +The little man stood in the door of his greenhouse with a +transplanting trowel in his hand. He was dressed in clay-colored +nankeen, and could get down in the dirt without seeming to get dirty. +His small eyes twinkled shrewdly, but not unkindly, as she advanced +toward him. He was fond of flowers, and she looked like one herself +that spring morning. + +"I was directed to call upon you," she said, with conciliatory +politeness, "understanding that you sometimes assist people with their +gardens." + +"Weel, noo and then I do, but I canna give mooch time with a' my ain +work." + +"But you would help a lady who has no one else to help her, wouldn't +you?" said Edith sweetly. + +Old Malcom was not to be caught with a sugar-plum, so he said with a +little Scotch caution: + +"I canna vera weel say till I hear mair aboot it." + +Edith told him how she was situated, and in view of her perplexity and +trouble, her voice had a little appealing pathos in it. Malcom's eyes +twinkled more and more kindly, and as he explained afterward to his +wife, "Her face was sae like a pink hyacinth beent doon by the storm +and a wantin' proppin' oop," that by the time she was done he was +ready to accede to her wishes. + +"Weel," said he, "I canna refuse a blithe young leddy like yoursel, +but ye must let me have my ain way." + +Edith was inclined to demur at this, for she had been reading up and +had many plans and theories to carry out. But she concluded to accept +the condition, thinking that with her feminine tact she would have her +own way after all. She did not realize that she was dealing with a +Scotchman. + +"I'll send ye a mon as will plow the garden, and not scratch it, the +morrow, God willin'," for Mr. McTrump was a very pious man, his only +fault being that he would take a drop too much occasionally. + +"May I stay here a while and watch you work, and look at things?" +asked Edith. "I don't want to go back till that hateful old fellow has +done his mischief and is gone." + +"Why not?" said Malcom, "an ye don't tech anything. The woman folk +from the village as come here do pick and pull much awry." + +"I promise you I will be good," said Edith eagerly. + +"That's mair than ony on us can say of oursel," said Malcom, showing +the doctrinal bias of his mind, "but I ken fra' yer bonnie face ye +mean weel." + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump, that is the first compliment I have received in +Pushton," laughed Edith. + +"I'm a thinkin' it'll not be the last. But I hope ye mind the Scripter +where it says, 'We do all fade as a flower,' and ye will not be puffed +oop." + +But Edith, far more intent on horticultural than on scriptural +knowledge, asked quickly: + +"What were you going to set out with that trowel?" + +"A new strawberry-bed. I ha' more plants the spring than I can sell, +sae I thought to put oot a new bed, though I ha' a good mony." + +"I am so glad. I wish to set out a large bed and can get the plants of +you." + +"How mony do ye want?" said Malcom, with a quick eye to business. + +"I shall leave that to you when you see my ground. Now see how I trust +you, Mr. McTrump." + +"An' ye'll not lose by it, though I would na like a' my coostomers to +put me sae strictly on my honesty." + +Edith spent the next hour in looking around the garden and greenhouses +and watching the old man put out his plants. + +"These plants are to be cooltivated after the hill seestem," he said. +"They are to stand one foot apart in the row, and the rows two feet +apart, and not a rooner or weed to grow on or near them, and it would +do your bright eyes good to see the great red berries they'll bear." + +"Shall I raise mine that way?" said Edith. + +"Weel, ye might soom, but the narrow row coolture will be best for ye, +I'm thinkin'." + +"What's that?" + +"Weel, just let the plants run togither and make a thick close row a +foot wide, an' two feet between the rows. That'll be the easiest for +ye, but I'll show ye." + +"I'm so glad I found you out!" said Edith, heartily; "and if you will +let me, I want to come here often and see how you do everything, for +to tell you the truth, between ourselves, we are poor, and may have to +earn our living out of the garden, or some other way, and I would +rather do it out of the garden." + +"Weel, noo, ye're a canny lass to coom and filch all old Malcom's +secrets to set oop opposition to him. But then sin' ye do it sae +openly I'll tell ye all I know. The big wourld ought to be wide enough +for a bonnie lassie like yoursel to ha' a chance in it, and though I'm +a little mon, I would na be sae mean a one as to hinder ye. Mairover +the gardener's craft be a gentle one, and I see na reason why, if a +white lily like yoursel must toil and spin, it should na be oot in +God's sunshine, where the flowers bloom, instead o' pricking the bluid +oot o' yer body, and the hope oot o' yer heart, wi' the needle's +point, as I ha' seen sae mony o' my ain coontry lassies do. Gude-by, +and may the roses in yer cheeks bloom a' the year round." + +Edith felt as if his last words were a blessing, and started with her +heart cheered and hopeful; and yet beyond her garden, with its spring +promise, its summer and autumn possibilities, there was little +inspiring or hopeful in her new home. + +In accordance with their mother's policy, they were waiting for +something to turn up--waiting, in utter uncertainty, and with dubious +prospects, to achieve by marriage the security and competence which +they must not work for, or they would utterly lose caste in the old +social world in which they had lived. + +Be not too hasty in condemning Mrs. Allen, my reader, for you may, at +the same time, condemn yourself. Have you no part in sustaining that +public sentiment which turns the cold shoulder of society toward the +woman who works? Many are growing rich every year, but more are +growing poor. What does the "best society," in the world's estimation, +say to the daughters in these families? + +"Keep your little hands white, my dears, as long as you can, because +as soon as the traces of toil are seen on them you become a working- +woman, and our daughters can't associate with you, and our sons can't +think of you, that is for wives. No other than little and white hands +can enter our heaven." + +So multitudes struggle to keep their hands white, though thereby the +risk that their souls will become stained and black increases daily. A +host of fair girls find their way every year to darker stains than +ever labor left, because they know how coldly society will ignore them +the moment they enlist in the army of honest workers. But you, +respectable men and women in your safe pleasant homes, to the extent +that you hold and sustain this false sentiment, to the extent that you +make the paths of labor hard and thorny, and darken them from the +approving smile of the world, you are guilty of these girls' ruin. + +Christian matron, with your husband one of the pillars of church and +state, do you shrink with disgust from that poor creature who comes +flaunting down Broadway? None but the white-handed enter your parlors, +and the men (?) who are hunting such poor girls to perdition will sit +on the sofa with your daughters this evening. Be not too confident. +Your child, or one in whom your blood flows at a little later remove, +may stand just where honor to toil would save, but the practical +dishonoring of it, which you sustain, eventually blot out the light of +earth and heaven. + +Mrs. Allen knew that even if her daughters commenced teaching, which, +with all the thousands spent on their education, they were incapable +of doing, their old sphere on Fifth Avenue would be as unapproachable +as the pearly gates, between which and the lost a "great gulf is +fixed." + +But Mrs. Allen knew also of a very respectable way, having the full +approval of society, by which they might regain their place in the +heaven from which they had fallen. Besides it was such a simple way, +requiring no labor whatever, though a little scheming perhaps, no +amount of brains or culture worth mentioning, no heart or love, and +least of all a noble nature. A woman may sell herself, or if of a waxy +disposition, having little force, may be sold at the altar to a man +who will give wealth and luxury in return. This, society, in full +dress, smiles upon, and civil law and sacred ceremony sanction. + +With the forefinger of her right hand resting impressively on the palm +of her left, Mrs. Allen had indicated this back door into the +paradise, the gates of which were guarded against poor working-women +by the flaming sword of public opinion, turning every way. + +And the girls were waiting yawningly, wearily, as the long unoccupied +days passed. Laura's cheek grew paler than even her delicate style of +beauty demanded. She seemed not only a hot-house plant, but a sickly +one. The light was fading from her eye as well as the color from her +cheek, and all vigor vanishing from her languid soul and body. The +resemblance to her mother grew more striking daily. She was a +melancholy result of that artificial luxurious life by which the whole +nature is so enervated that there seems no stamina left to resist the +first cold blast of adversity. Instead of being like a well-rooted +hardy native of the soil she seemed a tender exotic that would wither +even in the honest sunlight. As a gardener would say, she needed +"hardening off." This would require the bracing of principle and the +development of work. But Mrs. Allen could not lead the way to the +former, and the latter she forbade, so poor Laura grew more sickly and +morbid every day of her weary idle waiting. + +Mrs. Allen's policy bore even more heavily on Zell. We have all +thought something perhaps of the cruelty of imprisoning a vigorous +young person, abounding in animal life and spirits, in a narrow cell, +which forbids all action and stifles hope. It gives the unhappy victim +the sensation of being buried alive. There comes at last to be one +passionate desire to get out and away. Impulsive, restless, excitable +Zell, with every vein filled with hot young blood, was shut out from +what seemed to her the world, and no other world of activity was shown +to her. Her hands were tied by her mother's policy, and she sat moping +and chafing like a chained captive, waiting till Mr. Van Dam should +come and deliver her from as vile durance as was ever suffered in the +moss-grown castles of the old world. The hope of his coming was all +that sustained her. Her sad situation was the result of acting on a +false view of life from beginning to end. Any true parent would have +shuddered at the thought of a daughter marrying such a man as Van Dam, +but Zell was forbidden to do one useful thing, lest it should mar her +chance of union with this resume of all vice and uncleanness; and +though she had heard the many reports of his evil life, her moral +sense was so perverted that he seemed a lion rather than a reptile to +her. It is true, she looked upon him only in the light of her future +husband, but that she did not shrink from any relationship with such a +man shows how false and defective her education had been. + +Edith had employment for mind and hand, therefore she was happier and +safer than either of her sisters. Malcom had her garden thoroughly +plowed, and helped her plant it. He gave her many flower roots and +sold others at very low prices. In the lower part of the garden, where +the ground was rather heavy and moist, he put out a large number of +raspberries; and along a stone fence, where weeds and bushes had been +usurping the ground, he planted two or three varieties of blackcaps. +He also lined another fence with Kittatinny blackberries. There were +already many currants and gooseberries on the place. These he trimmed, +and put in cuttings for new bushes. He pruned the grapevines also +somewhat, but not to any great extent, on account of the lateness of +the season, meaning to get them into shape by summer cutting. The +orchard also was made to look clean and trim, with the dead wood and +interfering branches cut away. Edith watched these operations with the +deepest interest, and when she could, without danger of being observed +from the road, assisted, though in a very dainty, amateur way. But +Malcom did not aim to put in as many hours as possible, but seemed to +do everything with a sleight of hand that made his visits appear too +brief, even though she had to pay for them. As a refuge from long idle +hours, she would often go up to Malcom's little place, and watch him +and his assistant as they deftly dealt with nature in accordance with +her moods, making the most of the soil, sunlight, and rain. Thus +Malcom came to take a great interest in her, and shrewd Edith was not +slow in fostering so useful a friendship. But in spite of all this, +there were many rainy idle days that hung like lead upon her hands, +and upon these especially, it seemed impossible to carry out her +purpose to be gentle and forbearing, and it often occurred that the +dull apathy of the household was changed into positive pain by sharp +words and angry retorts that should never have been spoken. + +About the last Sabbath of April, Mrs. Allen sent for a carriage and +was driven with her daughters to the most fashionable church of +Pushton. Marshalled by the sexton, they rustled in toilets more +suitable for one of the gorgeous temples of Fifth Avenue than for even +the most ambitious of country churches. Mrs. Allen hoped to make a +profound impression on the country people, and by this one dress +parade to secure standing and cordial recognition among the foremost +families. But she overshot the mark. The failure of Mr. Allen was +known. The costly mourning suits and the little house did not accord, +the solid, sensible people were unfavorably impressed, and those of +fashionable and aristocratic tendencies felt that investigation was +needed before the strangers could be admitted within their exclusive +circles. So, though it was not a Methodist church that they attended, +the Allens were put on longer probation by all classes, when if they +had appeared in a simple unassuming manner, rating themselves at their +true worth and position, many would have been inclined to take them by +the hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THEY TURN UP + + + +One morning, a month after the Allens had gone into poverty's exile, +Gus Elliot lounged into Mr. Van Dam's luxurious apartments. There was +everything around him to gratify the eye of sense, that is, such sense +as Gus Elliot had cultivated, though an angel might have hidden his +face. We will not describe these rooms--we had better not. It is +sufficient to say that in their decorations, pictures, bacchanalian +ornaments, and general suggestion, they were a reflex of Mr. Van Dam's +character, in the more refined and aesthetic phase which he presented +to society. Indeed, in the name of art, whose mantle, if at times +rather flimsy, is broader than that of charity, not a few would have +admired the exhibitions of Mr. Van Dam's taste. + +But concerning Gus Elliot, no doubt exists in our mind. The atmosphere +of Mr. Van Dam's room was entirely adapted to his chosen direction of +development. He was a young man of leisure and fashion, and was +therefore what even the fashionable would be horrified at their +daughters ever becoming. This nice distinction between son and +daughter does not result well. It leaves men in the midst of society +unbranded as vile, unmarked so that good women may shrink in disgust +from them. It gives them a chance to prey upon the weak, as Mr. Van +Dam purposed to do, and as he intended to induce Gus Elliot to do, and +as multitudes of exquisitely dressed scoundrels are doing daily. + +If Mr. and Mrs. Allen had done their duty as parents, they would have +kept the wolf (I beg the wolf's pardon) the jackal, Mr. Van Dam, with +his thin disguise of society polish, from entering their fold. Gus +Elliot was one of those mean curs that never lead, and could always be +drawn into any evil that satisfied the one question of his life, "Will +it give me what _I_ want?" + +Gus was such an exquisite that the smell of garlic made him ill, and +the sight of blood made him faint, and the thought of coarse working +hands was an abomination, but in worse than idleness he could see his +old father wearing himself out, he could get "gentlemanly drunk," and +commit any wrong in vogue among the fast young men with whom he +associated. And now Mephistopheles Van Dam easily induces him to seek +to drag down beautiful Edith Allen, the woman he had meant to marry, +to a life compared with which the city gutters are cleanly. + +Van Dam in slippers and silken robe was smoking his meerschaum after a +late breakfast and reading a French novel. + +"What is the matter?" he said, noting Gus's expression of ennui and +discontent. + +"There is not another girl left in the city to be mentioned the same +day with Edith Allen," said Gus, with the pettishness of a child from +whom something had been taken. + +"Well, spooney, what are you going to do about it?" asked Mr. Van Dam +coolly. + +"What is there to do about it? You know well enough that I can't +afford to marry her. I suppose it's the best thing for me that she has +gone off to the backwoods somewhere, for while she was here I could +not help seeing her, and after all it was only an aggravation." + +"I can't afford to marry Zell," replied Van Dam, "but I am going up to +see her to-morrow. After being out there by themselves for a month, I +think they will be glad to see some one from the civilized world." The +most honest thing about Van Dam was his sincere commiseration for +those compelled to live in quiet country places, without experience in +the highly spiced pleasures and excitements of the metropolis. In his +mind they were associated with oxen--innocent, rural, and heavy, these +terms being almost synonymous to him, and suggestive of such a forlorn +tame condition that it seemed only vegetating, not living. Mr. Van Dam +believed in a life, like his favorite dishes, that abounded in +cayenne. Zell's letters had confirmed this opinion, and he saw that +she was half desperate with ennui and disgust at their loneliness. + +"I imagine we have stayed away long enough," he continued. "They have +had sufficient of the miseries of mud, rain, and exile, not to be very +nice about the conditions of return to old haunts and life. Of course +I can't afford to marry Zell any more than you can Edith, but for all +that I expect to have her here with me before many months pass, and +perhaps weeks." + +"Look here, Van Dam, you are going too far. Remember how high the +Allens once stood in society," said Gus, a little startled. + +"'Once stood;' where do they stand now? Who in society has lifted, or +will lift a finger for them, and they seem to have no near relatives +to stand by them. I tell you they are at our mercy. Luxury is a +necessity, and yet they are not able to earn their bare bread. + +"Let me inform you," he continued, speaking with the confidence of a +hunter, who from long experience knows just where the game is most +easily captured, "that there is no class more helpless than the very +rich when reduced to sudden poverty. They are usually too proud to +work, in the first place, and in the second, they don't know how to do +anything. What does a fashionable education fit a girl for, I would +like to know, if, as often occurs, she has to make her own way in the +world?--a smattering of everything, mistress of nothing." + +"Well, Van Dam," said Gus, "according to your showing, it fits them +for little schemes like the one you are broaching." + +"Precisely. Girls who know how to work and who are accustomed to it, +will snap their fingers in your face, and tell you they can take care +of themselves, but the class to which the Allens belong, unless kept +up by some rich relations, are soon almost desperate from want. I have +kept up a correspondence with Zell. They seem to have no near +relatives or friends who are doing much for them. They are doing +nothing for themselves, save spend what little there is left, and +their monotonous country life has half-murdered them already. So I +conclude I have waited long enough and will go up to-morrow. Instead +of pouting like a spoiled child over your lost Edith, you had better +go up and get her. It may take a little time and management. Of course +they must be made to think we intend to marry them, but if they once +elope with us, we can find a priest at our leisure." + +"I will go up to-morrow with you any way," said Gus, who, like so many +others, never made a square bargain with the devil, but was easily +"led captive" from one wrong and villany to another. + +It was the last day of April--one on which the rawness and harshness +of early spring were melting into the mildness of May. The buds on the +trees had perceptibly swollen. The flowering maple was still aflame, +the sweet centre of attraction to innumerable bees, the hum of whose +industry rose and fell on the languid breeze. The grass had the +delicate green and exquisite odor belonging to its first growth, and +was rapidly turning the brown, withered sward of winter into emerald. +The sun shone through a slight haze, but shone warmly. The birds had +opened the day with full orchestra, but at noon there was little more +than chirp and twitter, they seeming to feel something of Edith's +languor, as she leaned on the railing of the porch, and watched for +the coming of Malcom. She sighed as she looked at the bare brown earth +of the large space that she purposed for strawberries, and work there +and everywhere seemed repulsive. The sudden heat was enervating and +gave her the feeling of luxurious languor that she longed to enjoy +with a sense of security and freedom from care. But even as her +eyelids drooped with momentary drowsiness, there was a consciousness, +like a dull, half-recognized pain, of insecurity, of impending trouble +and danger, and of a need for exertion that would lead to something +more certain than anything her mother's policy promised. + +She was startled from her heaviness by the sharp click of the gate +latch, and Malcom entered with two large baskets of strawberry-plants. +He had said to her: + +"Wait a bit. The plants will do weel, put oot the last o' the moonth. +An ye wait I'll gie ye the plants I ha' left cover and canna sell the +season. But dinna be troobled, I'll keep it enoof for ye ony way." + +By this means Edith obtained half her plants without cost, save for +Malcom's labor of transplanting them. + +The weather had little influence on Malcom's wiry frame, and his +spirit of energetic, cheerful industry was contagious. Once aroused +and interested, Edith lost all sense of time, and the afternoon passed +happily away. + +At her request Malcom had brought her a pair of pruning nippers, such +as she had seen him use, and she kept up a delicate show of work, +trimming the rose-bushes and shrubs, while she watched him. She could +not bring her mind to anything that looked like real work as yet, but +she had a feeling that it must come. She saw that it would help Malcom +very much if she went before and dropped the plants for him, but some +one might see her, and speak of her doing useful work. The +aristocratically inclined in Pushton would frown on the young lady so +employed, but she could snip at roses and twine vines, and that would +look pretty and rural from the road. + +But it so happened that the one who caught a glimpse of her spring-day +beauty, and saw the pretty rural scene she crowned, was not the +critical occupant of some family carriage; for when, while near the +road, she was reaching up to clip off the topmost spray of a bush, her +attention was drawn by the rattle of a wagon, and in this picturesque +attitude her eyes met those of Arden Lacey. The sudden remembrance of +the unkind return made to him, and the fact that she had therefore +dreaded meeting him, caused her to blush deeply. Her feminine +quickness caught his expression, a timid questioning look, that seemed +to ask if she would act the part of the others. Edith was a society +and city girl, and her confusion lasted but a second. Policy +whispered, "You can still keep him as a useful friend, though you must +keep him at a distance, and you may need him." Some sense of gratitude +and of the wrong done him and his also mingled with these thoughts, +passing with the marvellous rapidity with which a lady's mind acts in +social emergencies. She also remembered that they were alone, and that +none of the Pushton notables could see that she was acquainted with +the "drunken Laceys." Therefore before the diffident Arden could turn +away, she bowed and smiled to him in a genial, conciliatory manner. +His face brightened into instant sunshine, and to her surprise he +lifted his old weather-stained felt hat like a gentleman. Though he +had received no lessons in etiquette, he was inclined to be a little +courtly and stately in manner, when he noticed a lady at all, from +unconscious imitation of the high-bred characters in the romances he +read. He said to himself in glad exultation: + +"She is different from the rest. She is as divinely good as she is +divinely beautiful," and away he rattled toward Pushton as happy as if +his old box wagon were a golden chariot, and he a caliph of Arabian +story on whom had just shone the lustrous eyes of the Queen of the +East. Then as the tumult in his mind subsided, questioning thoughts as +to the cause of her blush came trooping through his mind, and at once +there arose a long vista of airy castles tipped with hope as with +sunlight Poor Arden! What a wild, uncurbed imagination had mastered +his morbid nature, as he lived a hermit's life among the practical +people of Pushton! If he had known that Edith, had she seen him in the +village, would have crossed the street rather than have met or +recognized him, it would have plunged him into still bitterer +misanthropy. She and his mother only stood between him and utter +contempt and hatred of his kind, as they existed in reality, and not +in his books and dreams. + +She forgot all about him before his wagon turned the corner of the +road, and chatted away to Malcom, questioning and nipping with +increasing zest. As the day grew cooler, her spirits rose under the +best of all stimulants, agreeable occupation. The birds ceased at last +their nest-building, and from orchard and grove came many an inspiring +song. Edith listened with keen enjoyment, and country life and work +looked no longer as they had done in the sultry noon. She saw with +deep satisfaction the long rows of strawberry-vines increasing under +Malcom's labors. In the still humid air the plants scarcely wilted and +stood up with the bright look of those well started in life. + +As evening approached, and no carriage of note had passed, Edith +ventured to get her transplanting trowel, doff her gloves, and +commence dividing her flower roots, that she might put them elsewhere. +She became so interested in her work that she was positively happy, +and soft-hearted Malcom, with his eye for the beauties of nature, was +getting his rows crooked, because of so many admiring glances toward +her as she went to and fro. + +The sun was low in the west and shone in crimson through the soft +haze. But the color in her cheeks was richer as she rose from the +ground, her little right hand lost in the scraggly earth-covered roots +of some hardy phlox, and turned to meet exquisite Gus Elliot, dressed +with finished care, his hands incased in immaculate gloves. Her broad- +rimmed hat was pushed back, her dress looped up, and she made a +picture in the evening glow that would have driven a true artist half +wild with admiration; but poor Gus was quite shocked. The idea of +Edith Allen, the girl he had meant to marry, grubbing in the dirt and +soiling her hands in that style! It was his impression that only Dutch +women worked in a garden; and for all he knew of its products she +might be setting out a potato plant. Quick Edith caught his +expression, and while she crimsoned with vexation at her plight, felt +a new and sudden sense of contempt for the semblance of a man before +her. + +But with the readiness of a society girl she smoothed her way out of +the dilemma, saying with vivacity: + +"Why, Mr. Elliot, where did you drop from? You have surprised me among +my flowers, you see." + +"Indeed, Miss Edith," said Gus, in rather unhappily phrased gallantry, +"to see you thus employed makes me feel as if we both had dropped into +some new and strange sphere. You seem the lovely shepherdess of this +rural scene, but where is your flock?" + +Shrewd Malcom, near by, watched this scene as the terrier he resembled +might have done, and took instant and instinctive dislike to the new- +comer. With a contemptuous sniff he thought to himself, "There's +mateerial enoof in ye for so mooch toward a flock as a calf and a +donkey." + +"A truce to your lame compliments," she said, concealing her vexation +under badinage. "I do not live by hook and crook yet, whatever I may +come to, and I remember that you only appreciate artificial flowers +made by pretty shop girls, and these are not in the country. But come +in. Mother and my sisters will be glad to see you." + +Gus was not blind to her beauty, and while the idea of marriage seemed +more impossible than ever, now that he had seen her hands soiled, the +evil suggestion of Van Dam gained attractiveness with every glance. + +Edith found Mr. Van Dam on the porch with Zell, who had welcomed him +in a manner that meant much to the wily man. He saw how necessary he +was to her, and how she had been living on the hope of seeing him, and +the baseness of his nature was such that instead of being stirred to +one noble kindly impulse toward her, he simply exulted in his power. + +"Oh," said she, as with both hands she greeted him, her eyes half +filling with tears, "we have been living like poor exiles in a distant +land, and you seem as if just from home, bringing the best part of it +with you." + +"And I shall carry you back to it ere long," he whispered. + +Her face grew bright and rosy with the deepest happiness she had ever +know. He had never spoken so plainly before. "Edith can never taunt me +again with his silence," she thought. Though sounding well enough to +the ear, how false were his words! Zell was giving the best love of +which her heart was capable in view of her defective education and +character. In a sincere and deep affection there are great +possibilities of good. Her passion, so frank and strong, in the hands +of a true man, was a lever that might have lifted her to the noblest +life. Van Dam sought to use it only to force her down. He purposed to +cause one of God's little ones to offend. + +Edith soon appeared, dressed with the taste and style of a Fifth +Avenue belle of the more sensible sort, and Gus was comforted. Her +picturesque natural beauty in the garden was quite lost on him, but +now that he saw the familiar touches of the artificial in her general +aspect, she seemed to him the peerless Edith of old. And yet his nice +eye noted that even a month of absence from the fashionable centre had +left her ignorant of some of the shadings off of one mode into +another, and the thought passed over the polished surface of his mind +(all Gus's thoughts were on the surface, there being no other +accommodation for them), "Why, a year in this out-of-the-world life, +and she would be only a country girl." + +But all detracting thoughts of each other, all mean, vile, and deadly +purposes, were hidden under smiling exteriors. Mrs. Allen was the +gracious, elegant matron who would not for the world let her daughters +soil their hands, but schemed to marry one to a weak apology for a +man, and another to a villain out and out, and the fashionable world +would cordially approve and sustain Mrs. Allen's tactics if she +succeeded. + +Laura brightened up more than she had done since her father's death. +Anything that gave hope of return to the city, and the possibility of +again meeting and withering Mr. Goulden with her scorn, was welcome. + +And Edith, while she half despised Gus, found it very pleasant to meet +those of her old set again, and repeat a bit of the past. The young +crave companionship, and in spite of all his weakness she half liked +Elliot. With youth's hopefulness she believed that he might become a +man if he only would. At any rate, she half-consciously formed the +reckless purpose to shut her eyes to all presentiments of coming +trouble and enjoy the evening to the utmost. + +Hannibal was enjoined to get up as fine a supper as possible, +regardless of cost, with Mrs. Allen's maid to assist. + +In the long purple twilight, Edith and Zell, on the arms of their +pseudo lovers, strolled up and down the paths of the little garden and +dooryard. As Edith and Gus were passing along the walk that skirted +the road, she heard the heavy ramble of a wagon that she knew to be +Arden Lacey's. She did not look up or recognize him, but appeared so +intent on what Gus was saying as to be oblivious of all else, and yet +through her long lashes she glanced toward him in a rapid flash, as he +sat in his rough working garb on the old board where she, on the rainy +night of her advent to Pushton, had clung to his arm in the jolting +wagon. Momentary as the glance was, the pained, startled expression of +his face as he bent his eyes full upon her caught her attention and +remained with her. + +His manner and appearance secured the attention of Gus also, and with +a contemptuous laugh he said loud enough for Arden to hear partially: + +"That native comes from pretty far back, I imagine. He looks as if he +never saw a lady and gentleman before. The idea of living like such a +cabbage-head as that!" + +If Gus had not been with Edith, his good clothes and good looks would +have been spoiled within the next five minutes. + +Edith glanced the other way and pointed to her strawberry-bed as if +not noticing his remark or its object, saying: + +"If you will come and see us a year from next June, I can give you a +dainty treat from these plants." + +"You will not be here next June," said Gus tenderly. "Do you imagine +we can spare you from New York? The city has seemed dull since robbed +of the light of your bright eyes." + +Edith rather liked sugar-plums of such make, even from Gus, and she, +as it were, held out her hand again by the rather sentimental remark: + +"Absent ones are soon forgotten." + +Gus, from much experience, knew how to flirt beautifully, and so with +some aptness and show of feeling, replied: + +"From my thoughts you are never absent." + +Edith gave him a quick questioning look. What did he mean? He had +avoided everything tending to commit him to a penniless girl after her +father's death. Was this mere flirtation? Or had he, in absence, +learned his need of her for happiness? and was he now willing to marry +her even though poor? + +"If he is man enough to do this, he is capable of doing more," she +thought quickly, and circumstances pleaded for him. She felt so +troubled about the future, so helpless and lonely, and he seemed so +inseparably associated with her old bright life, that she was tempted +to lean on such a swaying reed as she knew Gus to be. She did not +reply, but he could see the color deepen in her cheeks even in the +fading twilight, her bosom rose and fell more quickly, and her hand +rested upon his arm with a more confiding pressure. What more could he +ask? and he exulted. + +But before he could speak again they were summoned to supper. Van Dam +touched Gus's elbow as they passed in and whispered: + +"Don't be precipitate. Say nothing definite to-night. I gather from +Zell that a little more of their country purgatory will render them +wholly desperate." + +Edith noticed the momentary detention and whispering, and the thought +that there was some understanding between the two occurred to her. For +some undefined reason she was always inclined to be suspicious and on +the alert when Mr. Van Dam was present. And yet it was but a passing +thought, soon forgotten in the enjoyment of the evening, after so long +and dull an experience. Zell was radiant, and there was a glimmer of +color in Laura's pale cheeks. + +After supper they sat down to cards. The decanter was placed on the +side table, and heavy inroads were made on Mrs. Allen's limited stock +of wine, for the gentlemen, feeling that they were off on a lark, were +little inclined to self-control. They also insisted on the ladies +drinking health with them, which foolish Zell, and more foolish Mrs. +Allen were too ready to do, and for the first time since their coming +the little cottage resounded with laughter that was too loud and +frequent to be inspired by happiness only. + +If guardian angels watched there, as we believe they do everywhere, +they may well have veiled their faces in sadness and shame. + +But the face of poor innocent Hannibal shone with delight, and nodding +his head toward Mr. Allen's maid with the complacency of a prophet who +saw his predictions fulfilled, he said: + +"I told you my young ladies wasn't gwine to stay long in Bushtown" (as +Hannibal persisted in calling the place). + +To Arden Lacey, the sight of Edith listening with glowing cheeks and +intent manner to a stranger with her hand within his arm--a stranger +too that seemed the embodiment of that conventionality of the world +which he despised and hated, was a vision that pierced like a sword. +And then Gus's contemptuous words and Edith's non-recognition, though +he tried to believe she had not seen him, were like vitriol to a +wound. At first there was a mad impulse of anger toward Elliot, and, +as we have intimated, only Edith's presence prevented Arden from +demanding instant apology. He knew enough of his fiery nature to feel +that he must get away as fast as possible, or he might forever +disgrace himself in Edith's eyes. + +As he rode home his mind was in a sad chaos. He was conscious that his +airy castles were falling about him with a crash, which, though +unheard by all the world, shook his soul to the centre. + +Too utterly miserable to face his mother, loathing the thought of +food, he put up his horses and rushed out into the night. + +In his first impulse he vowed never to look toward Edith again, but, +before two hours of fruitless wandering had passed, a fascination drew +him toward Edith's cottage, only to hear that detested voice again, +only to hear even Edith's laugh ring out too loud and reckless to come +from the lips of the exquisite ideal of his dreams. Though the others +had spoken in thunder tones, he would have had ears for these two +voices only. He rushed away from the spot, as one might from some +torturing vision, exclaiming: + +"The real world is a worse mockery than the one of my dreams. Would to +heaven I had never been born!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WE CAN'T WORK + + + +The gentlemen agreed to meet the ladies the next day at church. Mrs. +Allen insisted upon it, as she wished to show the natives of Pushton +that they were visited by people of style from the city. As yet they +had not received many calls, and those venturing had come in a +reconnoitring kind of way. She knew so little of solid country people +as to suppose that two young men, like Gus Elliot and Van Dam, would +make a favorable impression. The latter, with a shrug and grimace at +Zell, which she, poor child, thought funny, promised to do so, and +then they took leave with great cordiality. + +So they were ready to hand the Allens out of their carriage the next +morning, and were, with the ladies, who were dressed even more +elaborately than on the previous Sabbath, shown to a prominent pew, +the centre of many admiring eyes, as they supposed. But where one +admired, ten criticised. The summer hotel at Pushton had brought New +York too near and made it too familiar for Mrs. Allen's tactics. +Visits to town were easily made and frequent, and by brief diversions +of their attention from the service, the good church people soon +satisfied themselves that the young men belonged to the bold fast +type, an impression strengthened by the parties themselves, who had +devotion only for Zell and Edith, and a bold stare for any pretty girl +that caught their eyes. + +After church they parted with the understanding that the gentlemen +should come out toward night and spend the evening. + +Mr. Van Dam and Gus Elliot dined at the village hotel, having ordered +the best dinner that the landlord was capable of serving, and a couple +of bottles of wine. Over this they became so exhilarated as to attract +a good deal of attention. A village tavern is always haunted by idle +clerks, and a motley crowd of gossips, on the Sabbath, and to these +the irruption of two young bloods from the city was a slight break in +the monotony of their slow shuffling jog toward perdition; and when +the fine gentlemen began to get drunk and noisy it was really quite +interesting. A group gathered round the bar, and through the open door +could see into the dining-room. Soon with unsteady step, Van Dam and +Elliot joined them, the latter brandishing an empty bottle, and +calling in a thick loud voice: + +"Here landlord (hic) open a bottle (hic) of wine, for these poor (hic) +suckers, (hic) I don't suppose (hic) they ever tasted (hic) anything +better than corn-whiskey, (hic) But I'll moisten (hic) their gullets +to-day (hic) with a gentleman's drink." + +The crowd was mean enough, as the loafers about a tavern usually are, +to give a faint cheer at the prospect of a treat, even though +accompanied by words equivalent to a kick. But one big raw-boned +fellow, who looked equal to any amount of corn-whiskey or anything +else, could not swallow Gus's insolence, and stepped up saying: + +"Look here, Cap'n, I'm ready enough to drink with a chap when he asks +me like a gentleman, but I feel more like puttin' a head on you than +drinkin' with yer." + +Gus had the false courage of wine and prided himself on his boxing. In +the headlong fury of drunkenness he flung the bottle at the man's +head, just grazing it, and sprang toward him, but stumbled and fell. +The man, with a certain rude sense of chivalry, waited for him to get +up, but the mean loafers who had cheered were about to manifest their +change of sentiment toward Gus by kicking him in his prostrate +condition. Van Dam, who also had drunk too much to be his cool careful +self, now drew a pistol, and with a savage volley of oaths swore he +would shoot the first man who touched his friend. Then, helping Gus +up, he carried him off to a private room, and with the skill of an old +experienced hand set about righting himself and Elliot, so that they +might be in a presentable condition for their visit at the Allens'. + +"Curse it all, Gus, why can you not keep within bounds? If this gets +to the girls' ears it may spoil everything." + +By five o'clock Gus had so far recovered as to venture to drive to the +Allens', and the fresh air restored him rapidly. Before leaving, the +landlord said to Van Dam: + +"You had better stay out there all night. From what I hear the boys +are going to lay for you when you come home to-night. I don't want any +rows connected with my house. I'd rather you wouldn't come back." + +Van Dam muttered an oath, and told the driver to go on. + +As a matter of course they were received very cordially. Gus was quite +himself again. He only seemed a little more inclined than usual to be +sentimental and in high spirits. + +They walked again in the twilight through the garden and under the +budding trees of the orchard. Gus assumed a caressing tone and manner, +which Edith half received and half resented. She felt that she did not +know her own mind and did not understand him altogether, and so she +took a diplomatic middle course that would leave her free to go +forward or retreat. Zell, under the influence of Mr. Van Dam's +flattering manner, walked in a beautiful but lurid dream. At last they +all gathered in the parlor and chatted and laughed over old times. + +On this Sabbath evening one of the officers of the church, seeing that +the Allens had twice worshipped with them, felt that perhaps he ought +to call and give them some encouragement. As he came up the path he +was surprised at the confused sound of voices. With his hand on the +door-bell he paused, and through an opening between the curtains saw +the young men of whose bar-room performance he had happened to hear. +Not caring to meet any of their sort he went silently away, shaking +his head with ill-omened significance. Of course one good man told his +wife what sort of company their new neighbors kept, and whom didn't +she tell? + +The evening grew late, but no carriage came from the village. + +"It's very strange," said Van Dam. + +"If it doesn't come you must stay all night," said Mrs. Allen +graciously. "We can make you quite comfortable even if we have a +little house." + +Mr. Van Dam, and Gus also, were profuse in their thanks. Edith bit her +lip with vexation. She felt that she and Zell were being placed in a +false position since the gentlemen who to the world would seem so +intimate with the family in reality held no relation to them. But no +scruples of prudence occurred to thoughtless Zell. With an arch look +toward her lover she said: + +"I think it threatens rain, so of course you cannot go." + +"Let us go out and see," he said. + +In the darkness of the porch he put his arm around the unresisting +girl and drew her to him, but he did not say like a true man: + +"Zell, be my wife." + +But poor Zell thought that was what all his attention and show of +affection meant. + +Edith and Gus joined them, and the latter thought also to put his +regard in the form of caressing action, rather than in honest +outspoken words, but she turned and said a little sharply: + +"You have no right." + +"Give me the right then," he whispered. + +"Whether I shall ever do that I cannot say. It depends somewhat on +yourself. But I cannot now and here." + +The warning hand of Van Dam was reached through the darkness and +touched Gus's arm. + +The next morning they walked back to the village, were driven two or +three miles to the nearest railway station, and took the train to the +city, having promised to come again soon. + +The week following their departure was an eventful one to the inmates +of the little cottage, and all unknown the most unfavorable influences +were at work against them. The Sunday hangers-on of a tavern have +their points of contact with the better classes, and gossip is a +commodity always in demand, whatever brings it to market. Therefore +the scenes in the dining and bar rooms, in which Mrs. Allen's +"friends" had played so prominent a part, were soon portrayed in hovel +and mansion alike, with such exaggerations and distortions as a story +inevitably suffers as passed along. The part acted by the young men +was certainly bad enough, but rumor made it much worse. Then this +stream of gossip was met by another coming from the wife of the good +man who had called with the best intentions on Sunday evening, but, +pained at the nature of the Allen's associations, had gone lamenting +to his wife, and she had gone lamenting to the majority of the elder +ladies of the church. These two streams uniting, quite a tidal wave of +"I want to knows," and "painful surprises," swept over Pushton, and +the Allens suffered wofully through their friends. They had already +received some reconnoitering calls, and a few from people who wanted +to be neighborly. But the truth was the people of Pushton had been +somewhat perplexed. They did not know where to place the Allens. The +fact that Mr. Allen had been a rich merchant, and lived on Fifth +Avenue, counted for something. But then even the natives of Pushton +knew that all kinds of people lived on Fifth Avenue, as elsewhere, and +that some of the most disreputable were the richest. A clearer +testimonial than that was therefore needed. Then again there was +another puzzle. The fact that Mr. Allen had failed, and that they +lived in a little house, indicated poverty. But their style of +dressing and ordering from the store also suggested not a little +property left. The humbler portion of the community doubted whether +they were the style of people for them to call on, and the rumor of +Rose Lacey's treatment, getting abroad in spite of Arden's injunction +to the contrary, confirmed these doubts, and alienated this class. The +more wealthy and fashionably inclined doubted the grounds for their +calling, having by no means made up their minds whether they could +take the Allens into their exclusive circle. So thus far Mrs. Allen +and her daughters had given audience to a sort of middle class of +skirmishers and scouts representing no one in particular save +themselves, who from a _penchant_ in that direction went out and +obtained information, so that the more solid ranks behind could know +what to do. In addition, as we have intimated, there were a few good +kindly people who said: + +"These strangers have come to live among us, and we must give them a +neighborly welcome." + +But there was something in their homely honest heartiness that did not +suit Mrs. Allen's artificial taste, and she rather snubbed them. + +"Heaven deliver us soon from Pushton," she said, "if the best people +have no more air of quality than these outlandish tribes. They all +look and act as if they had come out of the ark." + +If the Allens had frankly and patiently accepted their poverty and +misfortunes, and by close economy and some form of labor had sought to +maintain an honest independence, they could soon, through this latter +class, have become _en rapport_ with, not the wealthy and fashionable, +but the finest people of the community; people having the refinement, +intelligence, and heart to make the best friends we can possess. It +might take some little time. It ought to. Social recognition and +esteem should be earned. Unless strangers bring clear letters of +credit, or established reputation, they must expect to be put on +probation. But if they adopt a course of simple sincerity and dignity, +and especially one of great prudence, they are sure to find the right +sort of friends, and win the social position to which they are justly +entitled. But let the finger of scandal and doubt be pointed toward +them, and all having sons and daughters will stand aloof on the ground +of self-protection, if nothing else. The taint of scandal, like the +taint of leprosy, causes a general shrinking away. + +The finger of doubt and scandal in Pushton was now most decidedly +pointed toward the Allens. It was reported around: + +"Their father was a Wall Street gambler who lost all in a big +speculation and died suddenly or committed suicide. They belonged to +the ultra-fast fashionable set in New York, and the events of the past +Sabbath show that they are not the persons for self-respecting people +to associate with." + +Some of the rather dissipated clerks and semi-loafers of the village +were inclined to make the acquaintance of such stylish handsome girls, +but the Allens received the least advance from them with ineffable +scorn. + +Thus within the short space of a month Mrs. Allen had, by her policy, +contrived to isolate her family as completely as if they had had a +pestilence. + +Even Mrs. Lacey and Rose were inclined to pass from indignation to +contempt; for Mr. Lacey was present at the scene in the bar-room, and +reported that the "two young bucks were friends of their new +neighbors, the Allens, and had stayed there all Sunday night because +they darsn't go back to town." + +"Well," said Rose, "with all their airs, I haven't got to keeping +company with that style of men yet." + +"Cease to call yourself my sister if you ever do knowingly," said +Arden sternly. "I don't believe Edith Allen knows the character of +these men. They would not report themselves, and who is to do it?" + +"Perhaps you had better," said Rose maliciously. + +Arden's only answer was a dark frowning look. A severe conflict was +progressing in his mind. One impulse was to regard Edith as unworthy +of another thought. But his heart pleaded for her, and the thought +that she was different from the rest, and capable of developing a +character as beautiful as her person, grew stronger as he dwelt upon +it. + +"Like myself, she is related to others that drag her down," he +thought, "and she seems to have no friend or brother to protect or +warn her. Even if this over-dressed young fool is her lover, if she +could have seen him prostrate on the bar-room floor, she would never +look at him again. If she would I would never look at her." + +His romantic nature became impressed with the idea that he might +become in some sense her unknown knight and protector, and keep her +from marrying a man that would sink to what his father was. Therefore +he passed the house as often as he could in hope that there might be +some opportunity of seeing her. + +To poor Edith troubles thickened fast, for, as we have seen, the brunt +of everything came on her. Early on the forenoon of Monday the +carpenter appeared, asking with a hard, determined tone for his money, +adding with satire: + +"I suppose it's all right of course. People who want everything done +at once must expect to pay promptly." + +"Your bill is much too large--much larger than you gave us any reason +to suppose it would be," said Edith. + +"I've only charged you regular rates, miss, and you put me to no +little inconvenience besides." + +"That's not the point. It's double the amount you gave us to +understand it would be, and if you should deduct the damage caused by +your delay it would greatly reduce it. I do not feel willing that this +bill should be paid as it stands." + +"Very well then," said the man, coolly rising. "You threatened me with +a lawyer; I'll let my lawyer settle with you." + +"Edith," said Mrs. Allen majestically, "bring my checkbook." + +"Don't pay it, mother. He can't make us pay such a bill in view of the +fact that he left our roof open in the rain." + +"Do as I bid you," said Mrs. Allen impressively. + +"There," she said to the chuckling builder, in lofty scorn, throwing +toward him a check as if it were dirt. "Now leave the presence of +ladies whom you don't seem to know much about." + +The man reddened and went out muttering that "he had seen quite as +good ladies before." + +Two days later a letter from Mrs. Allen's bank brought dismay by +stating that she had overdrawn her account. + +The next day there came a letter from their lawyer saying that a +messenger from the bank had called upon him--that he was sorry they +had spent all their money--that he could not sell the stock he held at +any price now--and they had better sell their house in the country and +board. + +This Mrs. Allen was inclined to do, but Edith said almost fiercely: + +"I won't sell it. I am bound to have some place of refuge in this +hard, pitiless world. I hold the deed of this property, and we +certainly can get something to eat off of it, and if we must starve, +no one at least can disturb us." + +"What can we do?" said Mrs. Allen, crying and wringing her hands. + +"We ought to have saved our money and gone to work at something," +answered Edith sternly. + +"I am not able to work," whined Laura. + +"I don't know how to work, and I won't starve either," cried Zell +passionately. "I shall write to Mr. Van Dam this very day and tell him +all about it." + +"I would rather work my fingers off," retorted Edith scornfully, "than +have a man come and marry me out of charity, finding me as helpless as +if I were picked up off the street, and on the street we should soon +be, without shelter or friends, if we sold this place." + +And so the blow fell upon them, and such was the spirit with which +they bore it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE TEMPTATION + + + +The same mail brought them a long bill from Mr. Hard, accompanied with +a very polite but decisive note saying that it was his custom to have +a monthly settlement with his customers. + +The rest of the family looked with new dismay and helplessness at +this, and Edith added bitterly: + +"There are half a dozen other bills also." + +"What can we do?" again Mrs. Allen cried piteously. "If you girls had +only accepted some of your splendid offers--" + +"Hush, mother," said Edith imperiously. "I have heard that refrain too +often already," and the resolute practical girl went to her room and +shut herself up to think. + +Two hours later she came down to lunch with the determined air of one +who had come to a conclusion. + +"These bills must be met, in part at least," she said, "and the sooner +the better. After that we must buy no more than we can pay for, if +it's only a crust of bread. I shall take the first train to-morrow and +dispose of some of my jewelry. Who of you will contribute some also? +We all have more than we shall ever need." + +"Pawn our jewelry!" they all shrieked. + +"No, sell it," said Edith firmly. + +"You hateful creature!" sobbed Zell. "If Mr. Van Dam heard it he would +never come near me again." + +"If he's that kind of a man, he had better not," was the sharp retort. + +"I'll never forgive you if you do it. You shall not spoil all my +chances and your own too. He as good as offered himself to me, and I +insist on your giving me a chance to write to him before you take one +of your mad steps." + +They all clamored against her purpose so strongly that Edith was borne +down and reluctantly gave way. Zell wrote immediately a touching, +pathetic letter that would have moved a man of one knightly instinct +to come to her rescue. Van Dam read it with a look of fiendish +exultation, and calling on Gus said: + +"We will go up to-morrow. The right time has come. They won't be nice +as to terms any longer." + +It was an unfortunate thing for Edith that she had yielded at this +time to the policy of waiting one hour longer. In the two days that +intervened before the young men appeared there was time for that kind +of thought that tempts and weakens. She was in that most dangerous +attitude of irresolution. The toilsome path of independent labor +looked very hard and thorny--more than that, it looked lonely. This +latter aspect causes multitudes to shrink, where the work would not. +She knew enough of society to feel sure that her mother was right, and +that the moment she entered on bread-winning by any form of honest +labor, her old fashionable world was lost to her forever. And she knew +of no other world, she had no other friends save those of the gilded +past. She did not, with her healthful frame and energetic spirit, +shrink so much from labor as from association with the laboring +classes. She had been educated to think of them only as coarse and +common, and to make no distinctions. + +"Even if a few are good and intelligent as these Laceys seem, they +can't understand my feelings and past life, so there will be no +congeniality, and I shall have to work practically alone. Perhaps in +time I shall become coarse and common like the rest," she said with a +half-shudder at the thought of old-fashioned garb, slipshod dressing, +and long monotonous hours at one employment. All these were +inseparable in her mind from poverty and labor. + +Then after a long silence, during which she had sat with her chin +resting on her hands, she continued: + +"I believe I could stand it if I could earn a support out of the +garden with such a man as Malcom to help me. There are variety and +beauty there, and scope for constant improvement. But I fear a woman +can't make a livelihood by such out-of-door, man-like work. Good +heavens! what would my Fifth Avenue friends say if it should get to +their ears that Edith Allen was raising cabbages for market?" + +Then in contrast, as the alternative to labor, Gus Elliot continually +presented himself. + +"If he were only more of a man!" she thought. "But if he loves me so +well as to marry me in view of my poverty, he must have some true +manhood about him. I suppose I could learn to love him after a +fashion, and I certainly like him as well as any one I know. Perhaps +if I were with him to cheer, incite, and scold, he might become a fair +business man after all." + +And so Edith in her helplessness and fear of work was tempted to enter +on that forlorn experiment which so many energetic women of decided +character have made--that of marrying a man who can't stand alone, or +do anything but dawdle, in the hope that they may be able to infuse in +him some of their own moral and intellectual backbone. + +But Gus Elliot was not man enough, had not sense enough, to give her +this poor chance of matrimonial escape from labor that seemed to her +like a giant taskmaster, waiting with grimy, horny hand to claim her +as another of his innumerable slaves. Though a life of lonely, ill- +paid toil would have been better for Edith than marriage to Gus, he +was missing the one golden opportunity of his life, when he thought of +Edith Allen in other character than his wife. God uses instruments, +and she alone could give him a chance of being a man among men. In his +meditated baseness toward her, he aimed a fatal blow at his own life. + +And this is ever true of sins against the human brotherhood. The +recoil of a blow struck at another's interests has often the +retributive wrath of heaven in it, and the selfish soul that would +destroy a fellow-creature for its own pleasure is itself destroyed. + +False pride, false education, helpless, unskilled hands, an untaught, +unbraced moral nature, made strong, resolute, beautiful Edith Allen so +weak, so untrue to herself, that she was ready to throw herself away +on so thin a shadow of a man as Gus Elliot. She might have known, +indeed she half feared, that wretchedness would follow such a union. +It is torment to a large strong-souled woman to despise utterly the +man to whom she is chained. She revolts at his weakness and +irresolution, and the probabilities are that she will sink into that +worst phase of feminine drudgery, the supporting of a husband, who, +though able, will not work, and that she will become that social +monster of whom it is said with a significant laugh: + +"She is the man of the house." + +The only thing that reconciled her to the thought of marrying Gus was +the hope that she could inspire him to better things; and he seemed +the only refuge from the pressing troubles that environed her, and +from a lonely life of labor; for the thought that she could bring +herself to marry among the laboring classes had never occurred to her. + +So she came to the miserable conclusion on the afternoon of the second +day: + +"I'll take him if he will me, knowing how I am situated." + +If Gus could have been true and manly one evening, he might have +secured a prop that would have kept him up, though it would have been +at sad cost to Edith. + +On the afternoon of Friday, Zell returned from the village with +radiant face, and, waving a letter before Edith who sat moping in her +room, exclaimed with a thrill of ecstasy in her tone: + +"They are coming. Help make me irresistible." + +Edith felt the influence of Zell's excitement, and the mysteries of +the toilet began. Nature had done much for these girls, and they knew +how to enhance every charm by art. Edith good-naturedly helped her +sister, weaving pure shimmering pearls in the heavy braids of her +hair, whose raven hue made the fair face seem more fair. The toilet- +table of a queen had not the secrets of Zell's beauty, for the most +skilful art must deal with the surface, while Zell's loveliness glowed +from within. Her rich young blood mantled her cheek with a color that +came and went with her passing thoughts, and was as unlike the +flaming, unchanging red of a painted face as sunlight that flickers +through a breezy grove is to a gas-jet. Her eyes shone with the deep +excitement of a passionate love, and the feeling that the crisis of +her life was near. Even Edith gazed with wondering admiration at her +beauty, as she gave the finishing touches to her toilet, before she +commenced her own. + +Discarded Laura had a sorry part in the poor little play. She was to +be ill and unable to appear, and so resigned herself to a novel and +solitude. Mrs. Allen was to discreetly have a headache and retire +early, and thus all embarrassing third parties should be kept out of +the way. + +The late afternoon of Friday (unlucky day for once) brought the +gentlemen, dressed as exquisitely as ever, but the vision on the +rustic little porch almost dazzled even their experienced eyes. They +had seen these girls more richly dressed before and more radiant. +There was, however, a delicious pensiveness hanging over them now, +like those delicate veils that enhance beauty and conceal nothing. And +there was a deep undertone of excitement that gave them a magnetic +power that they could not have in quieter moods. + +Their appearance and manner of greeting caused secret exultation in +the black hearts that they expected would be offered to them that +night, but Edith looked so noble as well as beautiful that Gus rather +trembled in view of his part in the proposed tragedy. As warm and +gentle as had been her greeting, she did not appear like a girl that +could be safely trifled with. However, Gus knew his one source of +courage and kept up on brandy all day, and he proposed a heavier +onslaught than ever on poor Mrs. Allen's wine. But Edith did not bring +it out. She meant that all that was said that night should be spoken +in sober earnest. + +They sat down to cards for a while after tea, during which +conversation was rather forced, consisting mainly of extravagant +compliments from the gentlemen, and tender, meaning glances which the +girls did not resent. Mrs. Allen languidly joined them for a while, +and excused herself saying: + +"My poor head has been too heavily taxed of late," though how, save as +a small distillery of helpless tears, we do not remember. + +The regret of the young men at being deprived of her society was quite +affecting in view of the fact that they had often wished her dead and +out of the way. + +"Why should we shut ourselves up within walls this lovely spring +evening, this delicious earnest of the coming summer?" said Mr. Van +Dam to Zell. "Come, put on your shawl and show me your garden by +moonlight." + +Zell exultingly complied, believing that now she would show him, not +their poor little garden, but the paradise of requited love. A moment +later her graceful form, bending like a willow toward him, vanished in +the dusky light of the rising moon, down the garden path which led to +the little arbor. + +Gus, having the parlor to himself, went over to the sofa, seated +himself by the side of Edith and sought to pass his arm around her +waist. "You have no right," again said Edith with dignity, shrinking +away. + +"But will you not give the right? Behold me a suppliant at your feet," +said Gus tenderly, but comfortably keeping his seat. + +"Mr. Elliot," said Edith earnestly, "do you realize that you are +asking a poor girl to marry you?" + +"Your own beautiful self is beyond all gold," said Gus gushingly. + +"You did not think so a month ago," retorted Edith bitterly. + +"I was a fool. My friends discouraged it, but I find I cannot live +without you." + +This sounded well to poor Edith, but she said half sadly: + +"Perhaps your friends are right. You cannot afford to marry me." + +"But I cannot give you up," said Gus with much show of feeling. "What +would my life be without you? I admit to you that my friends are +opposed to my marriage, but am I to blight my life for them? Am I, who +have seen the best of New York for years, to give up the loveliest +girl I have ever seen in it? I cannot and I will not," concluded Gus +tragically. + +"And are you willing to give up all for me?" said Edith feelingly, her +glorious eyes becoming gentle and tender. + +"Yes, if you will give up all for me," said Gus languishingly, taking +her hand and drawing her toward him. + +Edith did not resist now, but leaned her head on his shoulder with the +blessed sense of rest and at least partial security. Her cruelly +harassed heart and burdened, threatened life could welcome even such +poor shelter as Gus Elliot offered. The spring evening was mild and +breathless, and its hush and peace seemed to accord with her feelings. +There was no ecstatic thrilling of her heart in the divine rapture of +mutual and open recognition of love, for no such love existed on her +part. It was only a languid feeling of contentment--moon-lighted with +sentiment, not sun-lighted with joy--that she had found some one who +would not leave her to labor and struggle alone. + +"Gus," she said pathetically, "we are very poor; we have nothing. We +are almost desperate from want. Think twice ere you engage yourself to +a girl so situated. Are you able to thus burden yourself?" + +Gus thought these words led the way to the carrying out of Van Dam's +instructions, for he said eagerly: + +"I know how you are situated. I learned all from Zell's letter to Van +Dam, but our hearts only cling the closer to you, and you must let me +take care of you at once. If you will only consent to a secret +marriage I can manage it." + +Edith slowly raised her head from his shoulder. Gus could not meet her +eyes, but felt them fixed searchingly on his face. There was a distant +mutter of thunder like a warning voice. He continued hurriedly: + +"I think you will agree with me, when you think of it, that such a +marriage would be best. It would be hard for me to break with my +family at once. Indeed I could not afford to anger my father now. But +I would soon get established in business myself, and I would work so +hard if I knew that you were dependent on me!" + +"Then you would wish me to remain here in obscurity your wife," said +Edith in a low constrained tone that Gus did not quite like. + +"Oh, no, not for the world," replied Gus hurriedly. "It is because I +so long for your daily and hourly presence that I urge you to come to +the city at once." + +"What is your plan then?" asked Edith in the same low tone. + +"Go with me to the city, on the boat that passes here in the evening. +I will see that you are lodged where you will have every comfort, yes +luxury. We can there be quietly married, and when the right time comes +we can openly acknowledge it." + +There was a tremble in Edith's voice when she again spoke, it might be +from mere excitement or anger. At any rate Gus grew more and more +uncomfortable. He had a vague feeling that Edith suspected his +falseness, and that her seeming calmness might presage a storm, and he +found it impossible to meet her full searching gaze, fearing that his +face would betray him. He was bad enough for his project, but not +quite brazen enough. + +She detached herself from his encircling arm, went to a book-stand +near and took from it a richly bound Bible. With this she came and +stood before Gus, who was half trembling with fear and perplexity, and +said in a tone so grave and solemn that his weak impressible nature +was deeply moved: + +"Mr. Elliot, perhaps I do not understand you. I have received several +offers before, but never one like yours this evening. Indeed I need +not remind you that you have spoken to me in a different vein. I know +circumstances have greatly altered with me. That I am no longer the +daughter of a millionaire, I am learning to my sorrow, but I am the +same Edith Allen that you knew of old. I would not like to misjudge +you, one of my oldest, most intimate friends of the happy past. And +yet, as I have said, I do not quite understand your offer. Place your +hand on this sacred book with me, and, as you hope for God's mercy, +answer me this truly. Would you wish your own sister to accept such an +offer, if she were situated like myself? Look me, an honest girl with +all my faults and poverty, in the face, and tell me as a true +brother." + +Gus felt himself in an awful dilemma. Something in Edith's solemn tone +and look convinced him that both he and Van Dam had misjudged her. His +knees trembled so that he could scarcely rise. A fascination that he +could not resist drew his face, stamped with guilt, toward her, and +slowly he raised his fearful eyes and for a moment met Edith's +searching, questioning gaze, then dropped them in confusion. + +"Why do you not put your hand on the book and speak?" she asked in the +low, concentrated voice of passion. + +Again he looked hurriedly at her. A flash of lightning illumined her +features, and he quailed before an expression such as he had never +seen before on any woman's face. + +"I--I--cannot," he faltered. + +The Bible dropped from her hands, they clasped, and for a moment she +seemed to writhe in agony, and in a low, shuddering tone she said: + +"There are none to trust--not one." + +Then, as if possessed by a sudden fury, she seized him roughly by the +arm and said hoarsely: + +"Speak, man! what then did you mean? What have all your tender +speeches and caressing actions meant?" + +Her face grew livid with rage and shame as the truth dawned upon her, +while poor feeble Gus lost his poise utterly and stood like a detected +criminal before her. + +"You asked me to marry you," she hissed. "Must no one ask your +immaculate sisters to do this, that you could not answer my simple +question? Or, did you mean something else? How dare you exist longer +in the semblance of a man? You have broken the sacred law of +hospitality, and here, in my little home that has sheltered you, you +purpose my destruction. You take mean advantage of my poverty and +trouble, and like a cowardly hunter must seek out a wounded doe as +your game. My grief and misfortune should have made a sanctuary about +me, but the orphaned and unfortunate, God's trust to all true men, +only invite your evil designs, because defenceless. Wretch, would you +have made me this offer if my father had lived, or if I had a +brother?" + +"It's all Van Dam's work, curse him," groaned Gus, white as a ghost. + +"Van Dam's work!" shrieked Edith, "and he's with Zell! So this is a +conspiracy. You both are the flower of chivalry," and her mocking, +half-hysterical laugh curdled Gus's blood, as her dress fluttered down +the path that led to the arbor. + +She appeared in the doorway like a sudden, supernatural vision, Zell's +head rested on Mr. Van Dam's shoulder, and he was portraying in low, +ardent tones the pleasures of city life, which would be hers as his +wife. + +"It is true," he had said, "our marriage must be secret for the +present. You must learn to trust me. But the time will soon come when +I can acknowledge you as my peerless bride." + +Foolish little Zell was too eager to escape present miseries to be +nice and critical as to the conditions, and too much in love, too +young and unsuspecting, to doubt the man who had petted her from a +child. She agreed to do anything he thought best. + +Then Edith's entrance and terrible words broke her pretty dream in +fragments. + +Snatching her sister from Van Dam's embrace, she cried passionately: + +"Leave this place. Your villany is discovered." + +"Really, Miss Edith"--began Van Dam with a poor show of dignity. + +"Leave instantly!" cried Edith imperiously. "Do you wish me to strike +you?" + +"Edith, are you mad?" cried Zell. + +"Your sister must have lost her reason," said Van Dam, approaching +Zell. + +"Stand back," cried Edith sternly. "I may go mad before this hateful +night passes, but while I have strength and reason left, I will drive +the wolves from our fold. Answer me this: have you not been proposing +secret marriage to my sister?" + +Her face looked spirit-like in the pale moonlight, and her eyes blazed +like coals of fire. As she stood there with her arm around her +bewildered, trembling sister, she seemed a guardian angel holding a +baffled fiend at bay. + +This was literally true, for even hardened Van Dam quailed before her, +and took refuge in the usual resource of his satanic ally--lies. + +"I assure you, Miss Edith, you do me great injustice. I have only +asked your sister that our marriage be private for a time--" + +"The same wretched bait--the same transparent falsehood," Edith cried. +"We cannot be married openly at our own home, but must go away with +you, two spotless knights, to New York. Do you take us for silly +fools? You know well what the world would say of ladies that so +compromised themselves, and no true man would ask this of a woman he +meant to make his wife. These premises are mine. Leave them." + +Van Dam was an old villain who had lived all his life in the +atmosphere of brawls and intrigue, therefore he said brazenly: + +"There is no use in wasting words on an angry woman. Zell, my darling, +do me justice. Don't give me up, as I never shall you," and he +vanished on the road toward the village, where Gus was skulking on +before him. + +"You weak, unmitigated fool," said he savagely, "why did I bring you?" + +"Look here, Van Dam," whined Gus, "that isn't the way to speak to a +gentleman." + +"Gentleman! ha, ha," laughed Van Dam bitterly. + +"I be hanged if I feel like one to-night. A pretty scrape you have got +me into," snarled Gus. + +"Well," said Van Dam cynically. "I thought I was too old to learn much +more, but you may shoot me if I ever go on a lark again with one of +your weak villains who is bad enough for anything, but has brains +enough only to get found out. If it hadn't been for you I would have +carried my point. And I will yet," he added with an oath. "I never +give up a game I have once started." + +And so they plodded on with mutual revilings and profanity, till Gus +became afraid of Van Dam, and was silent. + +The dark cloud that had risen unnoted in the south, like the slowly +gathering and impending wrath of God, now broke upon them in sudden +gusts, and then chased them, with pelting torrents of rain and +stinging hail, into the village. The sin-wrought chaos--the hellish +discord of their evil natures--seemed to have infected the peaceful +spring evening, for now the very spirit of the storm appeared abroad. +The rush and roar of the wind was so strong, the lightning so vivid, +and the crashing thunder peals overhead so terrific, that even +hardened Van Dam was awed, and Gus was so frightened and conscience- +smitten that he could scarcely keep up with his companion, but +shuddered at the thought of being left alone. + +At last they reached the tavern, roused the startled landlord, and +obtained welcome shelter. + +"What!" he said, "are the boys after you?" + +"No, no," said Van Dam impatiently; "the devil is after us in this +infernal storm. Give us two rooms, a fire, and some brandy as soon as +possible, and charge what you please." + +When Grus viewed himself in the mirror, as he at once did from long +habit, his haggard face, drenched, mud-splashed form, awakened sincere +self-commiseration; and his stained, bedraggled clothes troubled him +more than his soiled character. He did not remember the time when he +had not been well dressed, and to be so was his religion--the sacred +instinct of his life. Therefore he was inexpressibly shocked, and +almost ready to cry, as he saw his forlorn reflection in the glass. +And he had no change with him. What should he do? All other phases of +the disastrous night were lost in this. + +"There is nothing to be bought in this mean little town, and how can I +go to the city in this plight?" he anxiously queried. + +"Go to the devil then," and the sympathetic Van Dam wrapped himself up +and went to sleep. + +Gus worked fussily at his clothes till a late hour, devoutly hoping he +should meet no one whom he knew before reaching his dressing-room in +New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +BLACK HANNIBAL'S WHITE HEART + + + +Edith half led, half carried her sobbing sister to the parlor. Mrs. +Allen, no longer languid, and Laura from her exile, were already +there, and with dismayed faces drew near the sofa where Zell had been +placed. + +"What has happened?" asked Mrs. Allen tremblingly. + +Edith's self-control, now that her enemies were gone, gave way +utterly, and sinking on the floor, she swayed back and forth, sobbing +even more hysterically than Zell, and her mother and Laura, oppressed +with the sense of some new impending disaster, caught the contagion of +their bitter grief, and wept and wrung their hands also. + +The frightened maid stood in one door, with white questioning face, +and old gray-haired Hannibal in another, with streaming eyes of honest +sympathy. + +"Speak, speak, what is the matter?" almost shrieked Mrs. Allen. + +Edith could not speak, but Zell sobbed, "I--don't--know. Edith--seems +to have--gone--mad." + +At last, after the application of restoratives, Edith so far recovered +herself as to say brokenly: + +"We've been betrayed--they're--villains. They never--meant--marriage +at all." + +"That's false!" screamed Zell. "I won't believe it of my lover, +whatever may have been true of your mean little Gus Elliot. He +promised to marry me, and you have spoiled everything by your mad +folly. I'll never forgive you."--When Zell's wild fury would have +ceased, cannot be said, but a new voice startled and awed them into +silence. In the storm of sorrow and passion that raged within, the +outer storm had risen unnoted, but now an awful peal of thunder broke +over their heads and rolled away among the hills in deep +reverberations. Another and a louder crash soon followed, and a +solemn, expectant silence fell upon them akin to that when the noisy +passionate world will suddenly cease its clamor as the trump of God +proclaims the end. + +"Merciful heaven! we shall be struck," said Mrs. Allen shudderingly. + +"What's the use of living?" said Zell in a hard, reckless tone. + +"What is there to live for?" sighed Edith, deep in her heart. "There +are none to be trusted--not one." + +Instead of congratulations received with blushing happiness, and +solitaire engagement rings, thus is shown the first result of Mrs. +Allen's policy, and of society's injunction: + +"Keep your hands white, my dears." + +The storm passed away, and they crept off to such poor rest as they +could get, too miserable to speak, and too worn to renew the +threatened quarrel that a voice seemingly from heaven had interrupted. + +The next morning they gathered at a late breakfast-table with haggard +faces and swollen eyes. Zell looked hard and sullen, Edith's face was +so determined in its expression as to be stern. Mrs. Allen lamented +feebly and indefinitely, Laura only appeared more settled in her +apathy, and, like Zell and Edith, was utterly silent through the +forlorn meal. + +When it was over, Zell went up to her room and Edith followed her. +Zell had not spoken to her sister since the thunder peal had suddenly +checked her bitter words. Edith dreaded the alienation she saw in +Zell's face, and felt wronged by it, knowing that she had only acted +as truest friend and protector. But in order still to shield her +sister she must secure her confidence, or else the danger averted the +past evening would threaten as grimly as ever. She also realized how +essential Zell's help would be in the struggle for bread on which they +must enter, and wished to obtain her hearty co-operation in some plan +of work. She saw that labor now was inevitable, and must be commenced +immediately. From Laura little was to be hoped. She seemed so lacking +in mental and physical force since their troubles began, that it +appeared as if nothing could arouse her. She threatened soon to become +an invalid like her mother. The thought of help from the latter did +not even occur to her. + +Edith had not slept, and as the chaos and bitterness of the past +evening's experience passed away, her practical mind began to +concentrate itself on the problem of support. Her disappointment had +not been so severe as that of Zell, by any means, and so she was in a +condition to rally much sooner. She had never much more than liked +Elliot, and now the very thought of him was sickening, and though +labor and want might be hard indeed, and regret for all they had lost +keen, still she was spared the bitterer pain of a hopeless love. + +But it was just this that Zell feared, and though she repeated to +herself over and over again Van Dam's last words, "I will never give +you up," she feared that he would, or what would be equally painful, +she would be compelled to give him up, for she could not disguise from +herself that her confidence had been shaken. + +But sincere love is slow to believe evil of its object. If Van Dam had +shown preference for another, Zell's jealousy and anger would have +known no bounds, but this he had never done, and she could not bring +herself to believe that the man whom she had known, since childhood, +who had always treated her with uniform kindness and most flattering +attention, who had partaken of their hospitality so often and +intimately that he almost seemed like one of the family, meditated the +basest evil against her. + +"Gus Elliot is capable of any meanness, but Edith was mistaken about +my friend. And yet Edith has so insulted him that I fear he will never +come to the house again," she said with deep resentment. "If I had +declined a private marriage, I am sure he would have married me +openly." + +Therefore when Edith entered their little room Zell's face was +averted, and there was every evidence of estrangement. Edith meant to +be kind and considerate, and patiently show the reasons for her +action. + +She sat down and took her sister's cold, impassive hand, saying: + +"Zell, did I not help you dress in this very place last evening? Did I +not wait against my judgment till Mr. Van Dam came? These things prove +to you that I would not put a straw between you and a true lover. +Surely we have trouble enough without adding the bitter one of +division and estrangement. If we don't stand by each other now what +will become of us?" + +"What right had you to misjudge Mr. Van Dam by such a mean little +scamp as Gus Elliot? Why did you not give him a chance to explain +himself?" + +"O Zell, Zell, how can you be so blinded? Did he not ask you to go +away with him in the night--to elope, and then submit to a secret +marriage in New York?" + +"Well, he told me there were good reasons that made such a course +necessary at present." + +"Are you George Allen's daughter, that you could even listen to such a +proposal? When you lived on Fifth Avenue would he have dared to even +faintly suggest such a thing? Can he be a true lover who insults you +to begin with, and, in view of your misfortunes, instead of showing +manly delicacy and desire to shield, demands not only hard but +indecent conditions? Even if he purposed to marry you, what right has +he to require of you such indelicate action as would make your name a +byword and hissing among all your old acquaintances, and a lasting +stain to your family? They would not receive you with respect again, +though some might tolerate you and point you out as the girl so +desperate for a husband that she submitted to the grossest indignity +to get one." + +Zell hung her head in shame and anger under Edith's inexorable logic, +but the anger was now turning against Van Dam. Edith continued: + +"A lady should be sought and won. It is for her to set the place and +time of the wedding, and dictate the conditions. It is for her to say +who shall be present and who absent, and woman, to whom a spotless +name is everything, has the right, which even savage tribes recognize, +to shield herself from the faintest imputation of immodesty by +compelling her suitor to comply with the established custom and +etiquette which are her safeguards. The daughter of a poor laborer +would demand all this as a matter of course, and shall the beautiful +Zell Allen, who has had scores of admirers, have all this reversed in +her case, and be compelled to skulk away from the home in which she +should be openly married, to hunt up a man at night who has made the +pitiful promise that he will marry her somewhere at some time or +other, on condition that no one shall know it till he is ready? Mark +it well, the man who so insults a lady and all her family never means +to marry her, or else he is so coarse and brutal in all his instincts +that no decent woman ought to marry him." + +"Say no more," said Zell, in a low tone, "I fear you are right, though +I would rather die than believe it. Oh, Edith, Edith!" she cried in +sudden passionate grief. "My heart is broken. I loved him so! I could +have been so happy!" + +Edith took her in her arms and they cried together. At last Zell said +languidly; + +"What can we do?" + +"We must go to work like other poor people. If we had only done so at +first and saved every dollar we had left, we should not now be in our +present deeply embarrassed condition. And yet, Zell, if you, with your +vigor and strength, will only stand by me, and help your best, we will +see bright days yet There must be some way by which two girls can make +a livelihood here in Pushton as elsewhere. We have at least a shelter, +and I have great hopes of the garden." + +"I don't like a garden. I fear I couldn't do much there. And it seems +like man's work too. I fear I shall be too wretched and ignorant to do +anything." + +"Not at all. Youth, health, and time, against all the troubles of the +world." (This was the best creed poor Edith then had.) "Now," she +continued, encouragingly, "you like housework. Of course we must +dismiss our servants, and if you did the work of the house with Laura, +so that I had all my time for something else, it would be a great +saving and help." + +"Oh, dear! oh, dear! that we should ever come to this!" said Zell +despairingly. + +"We have come to it, and must face the truth." + +"Well, of course I'll try," said Zell with something of Laura's +apathy. Then with a sudden burst of passion she clenched her little +hands and cried: + +"I hate him, the cold-hearted wretch, to treat his poor little Zell so +shamefully!" and she paced up and down the room with inflamed eyes and +cheeks. Then in equally sudden revulsion she threw herself down on the +floor with her head in her sister's lap, and murmured, "God forgive +me, I love him still--I love him with my whole heart," and sobbed till +all her strength was gone. + +Edith sighed deeply. "Can she ever be depended on?" she thought. At +last she lifted the languid form on the bed, threw over her an afghan, +and bathed her head with cologne till the poor child fell asleep. + +Then she went down to Laura and her mother, to whom she explained more +fully the events of last evening. Laura only muttered, "shameful," but +Mrs. Allen whined, "She could not understand it. Girls didn't know how +to manage any longer. There must be some misunderstanding, for no +young men in the city could have meant to offer such an insult to an +old and respectable family like theirs. She never heard of such a +thing. If she could only have been present--" + +"Hush, mother," said Edith almost sternly. "It's all past now. I +should gladly believe that when you were a young lady such poor +villains were not in good society. Moreover, such offers are not made +to young ladies living on the avenue. This is more properly a case for +shooting than management. I have no patience to talk any more about +it. We must now try to conform to our altered circumstances, and at +least maintain our self-respect, and secure the comforts of life if +possible. But we must now practice the closest economy. Laura, you +will have to be mother's maid, for of course we can keep no servants. +I have a little money left, and will pay your maid to-day and let her +go." + +"I don't see how I can get along without her," said Mrs. Allen +helplessly. + +"You must," said Edith firmly. "We have no money to pay her any +longer, and your daughters will try to supply her place." + +Mrs. Allen did not formally abdicate her natural position as head of +the family, but in the hour of almost shipwreck Edith took the helm +out of the feeble hands. Yet the young girl had little to guide her, +no knowledge and experience worth mentioning, and the sea was rough +and beset with dangers. + +The maid had no regrets at departure, and went away with something of +the satisfaction of a rat leaving a sinking ship. But with old +Hannibal it was a different affair. + +"You ain't gwine to send me away too, is you, Miss Edie?" said he, +with the accent of dismay. + +"My good old friend," said Edith feelingly, "the only friend I'm sure +of in this great world full of people, I fear I must. We can't afford +to pay you even half what you are worth any longer." + +"I'se sure I doesn't eat sech a mighty lot," Hannibal sniffled out. + +"Oh, I hope we shan't reach starvation point," said Edith, smiling in +spite of her sore heart. "But, Hannibal, you are a valuable servant; +besides, there are plenty of rich upstarts who would give you anything +you would ask, just to have you come and give an old and aristocratic +air to their freshly-gilded mansions." + +"Miss Edie, you doesn't know nothin' 'tall about my feelin's. What's +money to ole Hannibal! I'se lived 'mong de millionaires and knows all +'bout money. It only buys half of 'em a heap of trouble and doesn't +keep dar hearts from gettin' sore. When Massa Allen was a livin', he +paid me big, and guv me all de money I wanted, and if he, at last, +lost my money which he keep, it's no mo'n he did wid his own. And now, +Miss Edie, I toted you and you'se sisters roun' on my shouler when you +was babies, and I hain't got nothin' left but you, no friends, no +nothin'; and if you send me away, it's like gwine out into de +wilderness. What 'ud I do in some strange man's big house, when my +heart's here in de little house? My heart is all ole Hannibal has +left, if 'tis black, and if you send me away you break it. I'd a heap +rader stay here in Bushtown and starve to death wid you alls, dan live +in de grandest house on de avenue." + +"Oh, Hannibal," said Edith, putting her hand on the old man's +shoulder, and looking at him with her large eyes dimmed with grateful +tears, "you don't know how much good you have done me. I have felt +that there were none to trust--not one, but you are as true as steel. +Your heart isn't black, as I told you before. It's whiter than mine. +Oh, that other men were like you!" + +"Bress you, Miss Edie, I isn't a man, I'se only a nigger." + +"You are my true and trusted friend," said Edith, "and you shall be +one of the family as long as you wish to stay with us." + +"Now bress you, Miss Edie, you'se an angel for sayin' dat. Don't be +afeard, I'se good for sumpen yet, if I be old. I once work for fear in +de South; den I work for money, and now I'se gwine to work for lub, +and it 'pears I can feel my ole jints limber up at de tought. It +'pears like dat lub is de only ting dat can make one young agin. Neber +you fear, Miss Edie, we'll pull trough, and I'se see you a grand lady +yet. A true lady you'se allers be, even if you went out to scrub." + +"Perhaps I'll have to, Hannibal. I know how to do that about as well +as anything else that people are willing to pay for." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CHANGES OF TWO SHORT MONTHS + + + +At the dinner-table it was reluctantly admitted to be necessary that +Edith should go to the city in the morning and dispose of some of +their jewelry. She went by the early train, and the familiar aspects +of Fourth Avenue as she rode down town were as painful as the features +of an old friend turned away from us in estrangement. She kept her +face closely veiled, hoping to meet no acquaintances, but some whom +she knew unwittingly brushed against her. Her mother's last words +were: + +"Go to some store where we are not known to sell the jewelry." + +Edith's usually good judgment seemed to fail her in this case, as +generally happens when we listen to the suggestions of false pride. +She went to a jeweller downtown who was an utter stranger. The man's +face to whom she handed her valuables for inspection did not suggest +pure gold that had passed through the refiner's fire, though he +professed to deal in that article. An unknown lady, closely veiled, +offering such rich articles for sale, looked suspicious; but, whether +it was right or wrong, there was a chance for him to make an +extraordinary profit. Giving a curious glance at Edith, who began to +have misgivings from the manner and appearance of the man, he swept +the little cases up and took them to the back part of the store, on +pretence of wishing to consult his partner. He soon returned and said +rather harshly: + +"I don't quite understand this matter, and we are not in the habit of +doing this kind of business. It may be all right that you should offer +this jewelry, and it may not. If we take it, we must run the risk. We +will give you"--offering scarcely half its value. + +"I assure you it is all right," said Edith indignantly, at the same +time with a sickening sensation of fear. "It all belongs to us, but we +are compelled to part with it from sudden need." + +"That is about the way they all talk," said the man coolly. "We will +give you no more than I said." + +"Then give me back my jewelry," said Edith, scarcely able to stand, +through fear and shame. + +"I don't know about that. Perhaps I ought to call in an officer any +way and have the thing investigated. But I give you your choice, +either to take this money, or go with a policeman before a justice and +have the thing explained," and he laid the money before her. + +She shuddered at the thought. Edith Allen in a police court, +explaining why she was selling her jewelry, the gifts of her dead +father, followed by a rabble in the street, her name in the papers, +and she the town-talk and scandal of her old set on the avenue! How +Gus Elliot and Van Dam would exult! All passed through her mind in one +dreadful whirl. She snatched up the money and rushed out with one +thought of escape, and for some time after had a shuddering +apprehension of being pursued and arrested. + +"Oh, if I had only gone to Tiffany's, where I am known!" she groaned. +"It's all mother's work. Her advice is always fatal, and I will never +follow it again. It seems as if everything and everybody were against +me," and she plunged into the sheltering throng of Broadway, glad to +be a mere unrecognized drop in its mighty tide. + +But even as Edith passed out of the jeweller's store her eye rested +for a moment on the face of a man whom she thought she had seen +before, though she could not tell where, and the face haunted her, +causing much uneasiness. + +"Could he have seen and known me?" she queried most anxiously. + +He had done both. He was no other than Tom Crowl, a clerk in the +village at one of the lesser dry-goods stores, where the Allens had a +small account. He was one of the mean loafers who were present at the +bar-room scene, and had cheered, and then kicked Gus Elliot, and "laid +for him" in the evening with the "boys." He was one of the upper +graduates of Pushton street-corners, and having spent an idle, vicious +boyhood, truant half the time from school, had now arrived at the +dignity of clerk in a store, that thrived feebly on the scattering +trade that filtered through and past Mr. Hard's larger establishment. +He was one of the worst phases of the male gossip, and had the scent +of a buzzard for the carrion of scandal. The Allens were now the +uppermost theme of the village, for there seemed some mystery about +them. Moreover, the rural dabblers in vice had a natural jealousy of +the more accomplished rakes from the city, which took on something of +the air of virtuous indignation against them. Of course the talk about +Gus and Van Dam included the Allens; and if poor Edith could have +heard the surmises about them in the select coterie of clerks that +gathered after closing hours around Crowl, as the central fountain of +gossip, she would have felt more bitterly than ever that the spirit of +chivalry had utterly forsaken mankind. + +When therefore young Crowl saw Edith get on the same train as himself, +he determined to watch her, and startle, if possible, his small squad +of admirers with a new proof of his right to lead as chief scandal- +monger. The scene in the jewelry store thus became a brilliant stroke +of fortune to him, though so severe a blow to Edith. (The number of +people who are like wolves, that turn upon and devour one of their +kind when wounded, is not small.) Crowl exultingly saw himself doubly +the hero of the evening in the little room of the loft over the store, +where poor Edith would be discussed that evening over a black bottle +and sundry clay pipes. + +As Edith returned up town toward the depot, the impulse to go and see +her old home was very strong. She thought her veil sufficient +protection to allow her to venture. Slowly and with heavy step she +passed up the well-known street on the opposite side, and then crossed +and passed down toward that door from which she had so often tripped +in light-hearted gayety, or rolled away in a liveried carriage, the +envied and courted daughter of a millionaire. And to-day she was +selling her jewelry for bread--to-day she had narrowly, as she +thought, escaped the police court--to-day she had no other prospect of +support save her unskilled hands, and little more than two short +months ago, that house was ablaze with light, resounding with mirth +and music, and she and her sisters were known as among the wealthiest +belles of the city. It was like a horrid dream. It seemed as if she +might see old Hannibal opening the door, and Zell come tripping out, +or Laura at the window of her room with a book, or the portly form of +her father returning from business, indeed even herself, radiant with +pride and pleasure, starting for an afternoon walk as of old. All +seemed to look the same. Why was it not? Why could she not enter and +be at home! Again she passed. A name on the door caught her eye. With +a shudder of disgust and pain, she read-- + +"Uriah Fox." + +"So the villain lives in the home of which he robbed us," she said +bitterly. "The world seems made for such. Old Hannibal was right. God +lumps the world, but the devil seems to look after his friends and +prosper them." + +She now hastened to the depot. The city had lost its attractions to +her, in view of what she had seen and suffered that day, and though +inclined to feel hard and resentful at her fate, she was sincerely +thankful that she had a quiet home in the country from which at least +the false-hearted and cruel could be kept away. + +She saw during the day several faces that she knew, but none +recognized her, and she realized how soon we are forgotten by our wide +circle of friends, and how the world goes on just the same after we +have vacated the large space we suppose we occupy. + +She reached home in the twilight, weary and despondent. Her mother +asked eagerly: + +"Did you meet any one you knew?" as if this were the all-important +question. + +"Don't speak to me," said Edith impatiently. "I'm half dead with +fatigue and trouble. Hannibal, please give me a cup of tea, and then I +will go to bed." + +"But, Edith," persisted Mrs. Allen querulously, "did you see any of +our old set? I hope you didn't take the jewelry where you were known." + +Edith's overtaxed nerves gave way, and she said sharply-- + +"No, I did not go where I was known, as I ought, and therefore have +been robbed, and might have been in jail myself to-night. I will never +follow your advice again. It has brought nothing but trouble and +disaster. I have had enough of your silly pride and its results. What +practical harm would it have done me, if I had met all the persons I +know in the city? By going where I was not known I lost half my +jewelry, and was insulted and threatened with great danger in the +bargain. If I had gone to Tiffany's, or Ball and Black's, where I am +known, I should have been treated politely and obtained the full value +of what I offered. I can't even forgive myself for being such a fool. +But I have done with your ridiculous false pride forever." + +These were harsh words for a daughter to speak to her mother, under +any provocation, and even Zell said: + +"Edith, you ought to be ashamed of yourself to speak to mother so." + +"I think so, too," said Laura. "I'm sure she meant everything for the +best, and she took the course which is taken by the majority in like +circumstances." + +"All the worse for the majority then, if they fare anything as we have +done. The division of labor in this family seems to be that I am to do +all the work, and bear the brunt of everything, and the rest sit by +and criticise, or make more trouble. You have all got to do something +now or go hungry," and Edith swallowed her tea, and went frowningly +away to her room. She was no saint, to begin with, and her overtaxed +mind and body revenged themselves in nervous irritation. But her young +and healthful nature soon found in sound sleep the needed restorative. + +Mrs. Allen shed a few helpless tears, and Laura wearily watched the +faint flicker on the hearth, for the night was chilly. Zell went into +the dining-room and read for the twentieth time a letter received that +day. + +Unknown to Edith, the worst disaster yet had occurred in her absence. +Zell had been to the village for the mail. She would not admit, even +to herself, that she hoped for a letter from one who had acted so poor +a part as her false lover, and yet, controlled so much more by her +feelings and impulses than by either reason or principle, it was with +a thrill of joy that she recognized the familiar handwriting. The next +moment she dropped her veil to conceal her burning blush of shame. She +hastened home with a wild tumult at heart. + +"I will read it, and see what he says for himself," she said, "and +then will write a withering answer." + +But as Van Dam's ardent words and plausible excuses burned themselves +into her memory, her weak foolish heart relented, and she half +believed he was wronged by Edith after all. The withering answer +became a queer jumble of tender reproaches and pathetic appeals, and +ended by saying that if he would marry her in her own home it all +might be as secret as he desired, and she would wait his convenience +for acknowledgment. + +She also did another wrong and imprudent thing; for she told him to +direct his reply to another office about a mile from Pushton, for she +dreaded Edith's anger should her correspondence be discovered. + +The wily, unscrupulous man gave one of his satantic leers as he read +the letter. + +"The game will soon be mine," he chuckled, and he wrote promptly in +return: + +"In your request and reproaches, I see the influence of another mind. +Left to yourself you would not doubt me. And yet such is my love for +you, I would comply with your request were it not for what passed that +fatal evening. My feelings and honor as a man forbid my ever meeting +your sister again till she has apologized. She never liked me, and +always wronged me with doubts. Elliot acted like a fool and a villain, +and I have nothing more to do with him. But your sister, in her anger +and excitement, classed me with him. When you have been my loved and +trusted wife for some length of time, I hope your family will do me +justice. When you are here with me you will soon see why our marriage +must be private for the present. You have known me since you were a +child. I will be true to my word and will do exactly as I agreed. I +will meet you any evening you wish on the down boat. Awaiting your +reply with an anxiety which only the deepest love can inspire, I +remain, + +"Your slave, GUILLIAM VAN DAM." + +Such was the false but plausible missive that was aimed as an arrow at +poor little Zell. There was nothing in her training or education, and +little in her character, to shield her. Moreover the increasing +miseries of their situation were Van Dam's allies. + +Edith rose the next morning greatly refreshed, and her naturally +courageous nature rallied to meet the difficulties of their position. +But in her strength, as was too often the case, she made too little +allowance for the weakness of the others. She took the reins in her +hand in a masterful and not merciful way, and dictated to the rest in +a manner that they secretly resented. + +The store wagon was a little earlier than usual that morning, and a +note from Mr. Hard was handed in, stating that he had payments to make +that day and would therefore request that his little account might be +met. Two or three other persons brought up bills from the village, +saying that for some reason or another the money was greatly needed. +Tom Crowl's gossip was doing its legitimate work. + +In the post-office Edith found all the other accounts against the +family, with requests for payment, polite enough, but pressing. + +She resolved to pay all she could, and went first to Mr. Hard's, That +worthy citizen's eyes grew less stony as he saw half the amount of his +bill on the counter. The rumor of Edith's visit to the city had +reached even him, and he had his fears that collecting might involve +some unpleasant business; but, however unpleasant it might be, Mr. +Hard always collected. + +"I hope our method of dealing has satisfied you. Miss Allen," he +ventured politely. + +"Oh, yes," said Edith dryly, "you have been very liberal and prompt +with everything, especially your bill." + +At this Mr. Hard's eyes grew quite pebbly, and he muttered something +about its being the rule to settle monthly. + +"Oh, certainly," said Edith, "and like most rules, no doubt, has many +exceptions. Good-morning." + +She also paid something on the other bills, and found that she had but +a few dollars left. Though there was a certain sense of relief in the +feeling that she now owed much less, still she looked with dismay on +the small sum remaining. Where was more to come from? She had +determined that she would not go to New York again to sell anything +except in the direst extremity. + +That evening Hannibal gave them a meagre supper, for Edith had told +him of the absolute necessity of economy. There was a little grumbling +over the fare. So Edith pushed her chair back, laid seven dollars on +the table, saying: + +"That's all the money I have in the world. Who's got any more?" + +They raised ten dollars among them. + +"Now," said Edith, "this is all we have. Where is more coming from?" + +Helpless sighs and silence were her only answers. + +"There is nothing clearer in the world," continued Edith, "than that +we must earn money. What can we do?" + +"I never thought I should have to work," said Laura piteously. + +"But, my dear sister," said Edith earnestly, "isn't it clear to you +now that you must? You certainly don't expect me to earn enough to +support you all. One pair of hands can't do it, and it wouldn't be +fair in the bargain." + +"Oh, certainly not," said Laura. "I will do anything you say as well +as I can, though, for the life of me, I don't see what I can do." + +"Nor I either," said Zell passionately. "I don't know how to work. I +never did anything useful in my life that I know of. What right have +parents to bring up girls in this way, unless they make it a perfect +certainty that they will always be rich? Here we are as helpless as +four children. We have not got enough to keep us from starving more +than a week at best. Just to think of it! Men are speculating and +risking all they have every day. Ever since I was a child I have heard +about the risks of business. I knew some people whose fathers failed, +and they went away, I don't know where, to suffer as we have perhaps, +and yet girls are not taught to do a single thing by which they can +earn a penny if they need to. If anybody will pay me for jabbering a +little bad French and Italian, and strumming a few operatic airs on +the piano, I am at their service. I think I also understand dressing, +flirting, and receiving compliments very well. I had a taste for these +things, and never had any special motive given me for doing anything +else. What becomes of all the girls thus taught to be helpless, and +then tossed out into the world to sink or swim?" + +"They find some self-sustaining work in it," said Edith. + +"Not all of them, I guess," muttered Zell sullenly. + +"Then they do worse, and had better starve," said Edith sternly. + +"You don't know anything about starving," retorted Zell, bitterly. "I +repeat, it's a burning shame to bring girls up so that they don't know +how to do anything, if there's ever any possibility that they must. +And it's a worse shame that respect and encouragement are not given to +girls who earn a living. Mother says that if we become working girls, +not one of our old wealthy, fashionable set will have anything to do +with us. What makes people act so silly? Any one of them on the avenue +may be where we are in a year. I've no patience with the ways of the +world. People don't help each other to be good, and don't help others +up. Grown-up folks act like children. How parents can look forward to +the barest chance of their children being poor, and bring them up as +we were, I don't see. I'm no more fit to be poor than to be +President." + +Zell never before had said a word that reflected on her father, but in +the light of events her criticism seemed so Just that no one reproved +her. + +Mrs. Allen only sighed over her part of the implied blame. She had +reached the hopeless stage of one lost in a foreign land, where the +language is unknown and every sight and sound unfamiliar and +bewildering. This weak fashionable woman, the costly product of an +artificial luxurious life, seemed capable of being little better than +a millstone around the necks of her children in this hour of their +need. If there had been some innate strength and nobility in Mrs. +Allen's character it might have developed now into something worthy of +respect under this sharp attrition of trouble, however perverted +before. But where a precious stone will take lustre a pumice stone +will crumble. There is a multitude of natures so weak to begin with +that they need tonic treatment all through life. What must such become +under the influence of enervating luxury, flattery, and uncurbed +selfishness from childhood? Poor, faded, sighing, helpless Mrs. Allen, +shivering before the trouble she had largely occasioned, is the +answer. + +Edith soon broke the forlorn silence that followed Zell's outburst by +saying: + +"All the blame doesn't rest on the parents. I might have improved my +advantages far better. I might have so mastered the mere rudiments of +an English education as to be able to teach little children, but I can +scarcely remember a single thing now." + +"I can remember one thing," interrupted Zell, who was fresh from her +books, "that there was mighty little attention given to the rudiments, +as you call them, in the fashionable schools to which I went. To give +the outward airs and graces of a fine lady seemed their whole aim. +Accomplishments, deportment were everything. The way I was hustled +over the rudiments almost takes away my breath to remember, and I have +as remote an idea of vulgar fractions as of how to do the vulgar work +before us. I tell you the whole thing is a cruel farce. If girls are +educated like butterflies, it ought to be made certain that they can +live like butterflies." + +"Well, then," continued Edith, "we ought to have perfected ourselves +in some accomplishment. They are always in demand. See what some +French and music teachers obtain." + +"Nonsense," said Zell pettishly, "you know well enough that by the +time we were sixteen our heads were so full of beaux, parties, and +dress, that French and music were a bore. We went through the +fashionable mills like the rest, and if father had continued worth a +million or so, no one would have found fault with our education." + +"We can't help the past now," said Edith after a moment, "but I am not +so old yet but that I can choose some kind of work and so thoroughly +master it that I can get the highest price paid for that form of +labor. I wish it could be gardening, for I have no taste for the shut- +up work of woman; sitting in a close room all day with a needle would +be slow suicide to me." + +"Gardening!" said Zell contemptuously. "You couldn't plow as well as +that snuffy old fellow who scratched your garden about as deeply as a +hen would have done it. A woman can't dig and hoe in the hot sun, that +is, an American girl can't, and I don't think she ought." + +"Nor I either," said Mrs. Allen, with some returning vitality. "The +very idea is horrid." + +"But plowing, digging, and hoeing are not all of gardening," said +Edith with some irritation. + +"I guess you would make a slim support by just snipping around among +the rose-bushes," retorted Zell provokingly, + +"That's always the way with you, Zell," said Edith sharply, "from one +extreme to another. Well, what would you like to do?" + +"If I had to work I would like housekeeping. That admits of great +variety and activity. I wish I could open a summer boarding-house up +here. Wouldn't I make it attractive!" + +"Such black eyes and red cheeks certainly would--to the gentlemen," +answered Edith satirically. + +"They would be mere accessories. I think I could give to a boarding- +house, that place of hash and harrowing discomfort, a dainty, homelike +air. If father, when he risked a failure, had only put aside enough to +set me up in a boarding-house, I should have been made." + +"A boarding-house! What horror next?" sighed Mrs. Allen. + +"Don't be alarmed, mother," said Zell bitterly. "We can scarcely start +one of the forlornest hash species on ten dollars. I admit I would +rather keep house for a good husband, and it seems to me I could soon +learn to give him the perfection of a good home," and her eyes filled +with wistful tears. Dashing them scornfully away, she added, "The idea +of a woman loving a man, and letting his home be dependent on the +cruel mercies of foreign servants! If it's a shame that girls are not +taught to make a living if they need to, it's a worse shame that they +are not taught to keep house. Half the brides I know of ought to have +been arrested and imprisoned for obtaining property on false +pretences. They had inveigled men into the vain expectation that they +would make a home for them, when they no more knew how to make a home +than a heaven. The best they can do is to go to one of those places so +satirically called an 'intelligence office,' and import them into +their elegant houses a small mob of quarrelsome, drunken, dishonest +foreigners, and then they and their husbands live on such conditions +as are permitted. I would be mistress of my house, just as a man is +master of his store or office, and I would know thoroughly how work of +all kinds was done, and see that it was done thoroughly. If they +wouldn't do it, I'd discharge them. I am satisfied that our bad +servants are the result of bad housekeepers more than anything else." + +"Poor little Zell!" said Edith, smiling sadly. "I hope you will have a +chance to put your theories into most happy and successful practice." + +"Little chance of it here in 'Bushtown,' as Hannibal calls it," said +Zell suddenly. + +"Well," said Edith, in a kind of desperate tone, "we've got to decide +on something at once. I will suggest this. Laura must take care of +mother, and teach a few little children if she can get them. We will +give up the parlor to her at certain hours. I will put up a notice in +the post-office asking for such patronage, and perhaps we can put an +advertisement in the Pushton Recorder, if it doesn't cost too much. +Zell, you must take the housekeeping mainly, for which you have a +taste, and help me with any sewing that I can get. Hannibal will go +into the garden and I will help him there all I can. I shall go to the +village to-morrow and see if I can find anything to do that will bring +in money." + +There was a silent acquiescence in Edith's plan, for no one had +anything else to offer. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IGNORANCE LOOKING FOR WORK + + + +The next day Edith went to the village, and frankly told Mr. Hard how +they were situated, mentioning that the failure of their lawyer to +sell the stock had suddenly placed them in this crippled condition. + +Mr. Hard's eyes grew more pebbly as he listened. He ventured in a +constrained voice as consolation: + +"That he never had much faith in stocks--No, he had no employment for +ladies in connection with his store. He simply bought and sold at a +_small_ advance. Miss Klip, the dressmaker, might have something." + +To Miss Klip Edith went. Miss Klip, although an unprotected female, +appeared to be a maiden that could take care of herself. One would +scarcely venture to hinder her. Her cutting scissors seemed instinct +with life, and one would get out of their way as naturally as from a +railroad train. She gave Edith a sharp look through her spectacles and +said abruptly in answer to her application: + +"I thought you was rich." + +"We were," said Edith sadly, "but we must work now and are willing +to." + +"What do you know about dressmaking and sewing?" + +"Well, not a great deal, but I think you would find us very ready to +learn." + +"Oh, bless you, I can get all my work done by thorough hands, and at +my own prices, too. Good-morning." + +"But can you not tell me of some one who would be apt to have work?" + +"There's Mrs. Glibe across the street. She has work sometimes. Most of +the dressmakers around here are well trained, have machines, and go +out by the day." + +Edith's heart sank. What chance was there for her untaught hands among +all these "trained workers." + +She soon found that Mrs. Glibe was more inclined to talk (being as +garrulous as Miss Klip was laconic) and to find out all about them +than to help her to work. Making but little headway in Edith's +confidence she at last said, "I give Rose Lacey all the work I have to +spare and it isn't very much. The business is so cut up that none of +us have much more than we can do except a short time in the busy +season. Still, those of us who can give a nice fit and cut to +advantage can make a good living after getting known. It takes time +and training you know of course." + +"But isn't there work of any kind that we can get in this place?" said +Edith impatiently. + +"Well, not that you' d be willing to do. Of course there's +housecleaning and washing and some plain sewing, though that is mostly +done on a machine. A good strong woman can always get day's work, +except in winter, but you ain't one of that sort," she added, looking +at Edith's delicate pink and white complexion and little white hands +in which a scrubbing-brush would look incongruous. + +"Isn't there any demand for fancy work?" asked Edith. + +"Mighty little. People buy such things in the city. Money ain't so +plenty in the country that people will spend much on that kind of +thing. The ladies themselves make it at home and when they go out to +tea." + +"Oh, dear!" sighed Edith, as she plodded wearily homeward, "what can +we do? Ignorance is as bad as crime." + +Her main hope now for immediate necessities was that they might get +some scholars. She had put up a notice in the post-office and an +advertisement in the paper. She had also purchased some rudimentary +school books, and the poor child, on her return home, soon distracted +herself by a sudden plunge into vulgar fractions. She found herself so +sadly rusty that she would have to study almost as hard as any of her +pupils, were they obtained. Laura's bookish turn and better memory had +kept her better informed. Edith soon threw aside grammars and +arithmetics, saying to Laura: + +"You must take care of the school, if we get one. It would take me too +long to prepare on these things in our emergency." + +Almost desperate from the feeling that there was nothing she could do, +she took a hoe that was by no means light, and loosened the ground and +cut off all the sprouting weeds around her strawberry-vines. The day +was rather cool and cloudy, and she was surprised at the space she +went over. She wore her broad-brimmed straw hat tied down over her +face, and determined she would not look at the road, and would act as +if it were not there, letting people think what they pleased. But a +familiar rumble and rattle caused her to look shyly up after the wagon +had passed, and she saw Arden Lacey gazing wonderingly back at her. +She dropped her eyes instantly as if she had not seen him, and went on +with her work. At last, thoroughly wearied, she went in and said half +triumphantly, half defiantly: + +"A woman can hoe. I've done it myself." + +"A woman _can_ ride a horse like a man," said Mrs. Allen, and this was +all the home encouragement poor Edith received. + +They had had but a light lunch at one o'clock, meaning to have a more +substantial dinner at six. Hannibal was showing Zell and getting her +started in her department. It was but a poor little dinner they had, +and Zell said in place of dessert: + +"Edith, we are most out of everything." + +"And I can't get any work," said Edith despondingly. "People have got +to know how to do things before anybody wants them, and we haven't +time to learn." + +"Ten dollars won't last long," said Zell recklessly. + +"I will go down to the village and make further inquiries to-morrow," +Edith continued in a weary tone. "It seems strange how people stand +aloof from us. No one calls and everybody wants what we owe them right +away. Are there not any good kind people in Pushton? I wish we had not +offended the Laceys. They might have advised and helped us, but +nothing would tempt me to go to them after treating them as we did." + +There were plenty of good kind people in Pushton, but Mrs. Allen's +"policy" had driven them away as far as possible. By their course the +Allens had placed themselves, in relation to all classes, in the most +unapproachable position, and their "friends" from the city and Tom +Crowl's gossip had made matters far worse. Poor Edith thought they +were utterly ignored. She would have felt worse if she had known that +every one was talking about them. + +The next day Edith started on another unsuccessful expedition to the +village, and while she was gone, Zell went to the post-office to which +she had told Van Dam to direct his reply. She found the plausible lie +we have already placed before the reader. + +At first she experienced a sensation of anger that he had not complied +with her wish. It was a new experience to have gentlemen, especially +Van Dam, so long her obsequious slave, think of anything contrary to +her wishes. She also feared that Edith might be right, and that Van +Dam designed evil against her. She would not openly admit, even to +herself, that this was his purpose, and yet Edith's words had been so +clear and strong, and Van Dam's conditions placed her so entirely at +his mercy, that she shrank from him and was fascinated at the same +time. + +But instead of indignantly casting the letter from her, she read it +again and again. Her foolish heart pleaded for him. + +"He couldn't be so false to me, so false to his written word," she +said, and the letter was hidden away, and she passed into the +dangerous stage of irresolution, where temptation is secretly dwelt +upon. She hesitated, and, according to the proverb, the woman who does +this is lost. Instead of indignantly casting temptation from her, she +left her course open, to be decided somewhat by circumstances. She +wilfully shut her eyes to the danger, and tried to believe, and did +almost believe that her lover meant honestly by her. + +And so the days passed, Edith vainly trying to find something to do, +and working hard in her garden, which as yet brought no return. She +was often very sad and despondent, and again very irritable. Laura's +apathy only deepened, and she seemed like one not yet awakened from a +dream of the past. Zell made some show of work, but after all left +almost everything for Hannibal as before, and when Edith sharply +chided her, she laughed recklessly and said: + +"What's the use? If we are going to starve we might as well do so at +once and have it over with." + +"I won't starve," said Edith, almost fiercely. "There must be honest +work somewhere in the world for one willing to do it, and I'm going to +find it. At any rate, can raise food in my garden before long." + +"I'm afraid we shall starve before your cabbages and carrots come to +maturity, and we might as well as to try to live on such garbage. +Supplies are running low, and, as you say, the money is nearly gone." + +"Yes, and people won't trust us any more. Two or three declined to in +the village to-day, and I felt too discouraged and ashamed to ask any +further. For some reason people seem afraid of us. I see persons turn +and look after me, and yet they avoid me. Two or three impudent clerks +tried to make my acquaintance, but I snubbed them in such a way that +they will let me alone hereafter. I wonder if any stories could have +got around about us? Country towns are such places for gossip." + +"Have you heard of any scholars?" said Laura languidly. + +"No, not one," was Edith's despondent answer. "If nothing turns up +before, I'll go to New York next Monday and sell some more things, and +I'll go where I'm known this time." + +Nothing turned up, and by Sunday they had nothing in the house save a +little dry bread, which they ate moistened with wine and water. Mrs. +Allen sighed and cried all day. Laura had the strange manner of one +awaking up to something unrealized before. Restlessness began to take +the place of apathy, and her eyes often sought the face of Edith in a +questioning manner. Finding her alone in the garden, she said: + +"Why, Edith, I'm hungry. I never remember being hungry before. Is it +possible we have come to this?" + +Edith burst into tears, and said brokenly: + +"Come with me to the arbor." + +"I'm sure I'm willing to do anything," said Laura piteously, "but I +never realized we would come to this." + +"Oh! how can the birds sing?" said Edith bitterly. "This beautiful +spring weather, with its promise and hopefulness, seems a mockery. The +sun is shining brightly, flowers are budding and blooming, and all the +world seems so happy, but my heart aches as if it would burst. I'm +hungry, too, and I know poor old Hannibal is faint, though he tries to +keep up whenever I am around." + +"But, Edith, if people knew how we are situated they would not let us +want. Our old acquaintances in New York, or our relations even, though +not very friendly, would surely help us." + +"Oh, yes, I suppose so for a little while, but I can't bring myself to +ask for charity, and no one would under take to support us. What +discourages me most is that I can't get work that will bring in money. +Between people wishing to have nothing to do with us, on one hand, and +my ignorance on the other, there seems no resource. Some of those whom +we owe seem inclined to press us. I'm so afraid of losing this place +and being out on the street. If I could only get a chance somewhere, +or get time to learn to do something well!" + +Then after a moment she asked suddenly, "Where's Zell?" + +"In her room, I think" + +"I don't like Zell's manner," said Edith, after a brief painful +revery. "It's so hard and reckless. Something seems to be on her mind. +She has long fits of abstraction as if she were thinking of something, +or weighing some plan. Could she have had any communication with that +villain Van Dam? Oh! that would be the bitterest drop of all in our +cup of sorrow. I would rather see her dead than that." + +"Oh, dear!" said Laura, "it seems as if I had been in a trance and had +just awakened. Why, Edith, I must do something. It is not right to let +you bear all these things alone. But don't trouble about Zell, not one +of George Allen's daughters will sink to that." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A FALLING STAR + + + +Zell slept most of the day. She had reached that point where she did +not want to think. On hearing Edith say that she would go to New York +on Monday, a sadden and strong temptation assailed her. Impulsive, but +not courageous, abounding in energy, but having little fortitude, she +found the conditions of her country life growing unendurable. Van Dam +seemed her only refuge, her only means of escape. She soon lost all +hope of their sustaining themselves by work in Pushton. Her uncurbed +nature could wait patiently for nothing, and as the long, idle days +passed, she doubted, and then despaired, of any success from Edith's +plans. She harbored Van Dam's temptation, and the consciousness of +doing this hurt her womanly nature, and her hard, reckless tone and +manner were the natural consequence. She said to herself, and tried to +believe-- + +"He will marry me--he has promised again and again." + +Still, there was the uneasy knowledge that she was placing herself and +her reputation entirely at his mercy, and she long had known that Van +Dam was no saint. It was this lurking knowledge, shut her eyes to it +as she might, that acted on her nature like a petrifying influence. + +And yet, Van Dam's temptation had more to contend with in her pride +than in her moral nature. Everything in her education had tended to +increase the former, and dwarf the latter. Her parents had taken her +to the theatre far oftener than even to the fashionable church on the +avenue. From the latter she carried away more ideas about dress than +about anything else. From a child she had been familiar with the +French school of morals, as taught by the sensational drama in New +York. Society, that will turn a poor girl out of doors the moment she +sins, will take her at the most critical age of her unformed +character, night after night, to witness plays in which the husband is +made ridiculous, but the man who destroys purity and home-happiness is +as splendid a villain as Milton's Satan. Mr. Allen himself had +familiarized Zell's mind with just what she was tempted to do, by +taking her to plays as poisonous to the soul as the malaria of the +Campagna at Rome to the body. He, though dead, had a part in the +present temptation of his child, and we unhesitatingly charge many +parents with the absolute ruin of their children, by exposing them, +and permitting them to be exposed, to influences that they know must +be fatal. No guardian of a child can plead the densest stupidity for +not knowing that French novels and plays are as demoralizing as the +devil could wish them to be; and constantly to place young, passionate +natures, just awakening in their uncurbed strength, under such +influences, and expect them to remain as spotless as snow, is the most +wretched absurdity of our day. Society brings fire to the tow, the +brand to the powder, and then lifts its hand to hurl its anathema in +case they ignite. + +But Mr. Allen sinned even more grievously in permitting a man like Van +Dam to haunt his home. If now one of the lambs of his flock suffered +irretrievably, he would be as much to blame as a shepherd who daily +saw the wolf within his fold. Mr. Allen was familiar with the stories +about Van Dam, as multitudes of wealthy men are to-day with the +character of well-dressed scoundrels who visit their daughters. Some +of the worst villains in existence have the _entree_ into the "best +society." It is pretty well known among men what they are, and +fashionable mammas are not wholly in the dark. Therefore, every day, +"angels that kept not their first estate" are falling from heaven. It +may not be the open, disgraceful ruin that threatened poor Zell, but +it is ruin nevertheless. + +After all, it was the undermining, unhallowed influence of long +association with Van Dam that now made Zell so weak in her first sharp +stress of temptation. Crime was not awful and repulsive to her. There +was little in her cunningly-perverted nature that revolted at it. She +hesitated mainly on the ground of her pride, and in view of the +consequences. And even these latter she in no sense realized, for the +school in which she had been taught showed only the flowery opening of +the path into sin, while its terrible retributions were kept hidden. + +Therefore, as the miseries of her condition in the country increased, +Zell's pride failed her, and she began to be willing to risk all to +get away, and when she felt the pinch of hunger she became almost +desperate. As we have said, on Edith's naming a day on which she would +be absent on the forlorn mission that would only put off the day of +utter want a little longer, the temptation took definite shape in +Zell's mind to write at once to Van Dam, acceding to his shameful +conditions. + +But, to satisfy her conscience, which she could not stifle, and to +provide some excuse for her action, and still more, to brace the hope +she tried to cherish that he really meant truly by her, she wrote: + +"If I will meet you at the boat Monday evening, will you surely marry +me? Promise me on your sacred honor." + +Van Dam muttered, with a low laugh, as he read the note: + +"That's a rich joke, for her to accept such a proposition as mine, +especially after all that has happened, and still prate of 'sacred +honor.'" + +But he unhesitatingly, promptly, and with many protestations assured +her that he would, and at once prepared to carry out his part of the +programme. + +"What's the use of half-way lies?" he said, carelessly. + +On Monday Edith again took the early train with the valuables of which +she designed to dispose. Zell had said indifferently: + +"You may take anything I have left except my watch and chain." + +But Laura had insisted on sending her watch, saying, "I really wish to +do something, Edith. I've left all the burden on you too long." + +Mrs. Allen sighed, and said, "Take any thing you please." + +So Edith carried away with her the means of fighting the wolf, hunger, +from their doors a little longer. But if she had known that a more +cruel enemy would despoil her home in her absence, she would rather +have starved than gone. + +Laura was reading to her mother when Zell put her head in at the door, +saying: + +"I am going for a short walk, and will be back soon." + +She hastened to the office at which she had told Van Dam to address +her, and found his reply. With feverish cheeks, and eyes in which +glowed excitement rather than happiness, she read it as soon as she +was alone on the road, and returned as quickly as possible. Her mind +was in a wild tumult, but she would not allow herself one rational +thought. She spent most of the day in her room preparing for her +flight. But when she came down to see Hannibal about their meagre +lunch, he said in some surprise and alarm: + +"Oh, Miss Zell, how burnin' red your cheeks be! You'se got a ragin' +feber, sure 'nuff. Go and lie right straight down, and I'se see to +eberyting. I'se been to de willage and got some tea. A man guv it to +me as a sample, and I telled him we'se like our tea mighty strong, so +you'se all hab a cup of tea to-day, and to-night Miss Edie'll come +back wid a heap of money." + +"Poor old Hannibal!" said Zell, with a sudden rush of tenderness. "I +wish I were as good as you are." + +"Lor bress you, Miss Zell, I isn't good. I'se kind of a heathen. But +somehow I feels dat de Lord will bress me when I steals for you alls." + +"Oh, Hannibal, I wish I was dead and out of the way! Then there would +be one less to provide for." + +"Dead and out of de way!" said Hannibal, half indignantly; "dat's jest +how to get into de way. I'd be afeard of seein' your spook whenever I +was alone. I had no comfort in New York arter Massa Allen died, and +was mighty glad to get away even to Bushtown. And den Miss Edie and +all would cry dar eyes out, and couldn't do nothin'. Folks is often +more in de way arter dey's dead and gone dan when livin'. Seein' your +sweet face around ebery day, honey, is a great help to ole Hannibal. +It seems only yesterday it was a little baby face, and we was all +pretty nigh crazy over you." + +"I wish I had died then!" said Zell, passionately, and hurrying away. + +"Poor chile, poor chile! she takes it mighty hard," said innocent +Hannibal. + +She kept her room during the afternoon, pleading that she did not feel +well. It gave her pain to be with her mother and Laura, now that she +purposed to leave them so abruptly, and she wished to see nothing that +would shake her resolution to go as she had arranged. She wrote to +Edith as follows: + +"I am going, Edith, to meet Mr. Van Dam, as he told me. I cannot--I +will not believe that he will prove false to me. I leave his letter, +which I received to-day. Perhaps you never will forgive me at home; +but whatever becomes of poor little Zell, she will not cease to love +you all. I should only be a burden if I stayed. There will be one less +to provide for, and I may be able to help you far more by going than +staying. Don't follow me. I've made my venture, and chosen my lot. +ZELL." + +As the long twilight was deepening, Hannibal, returning from the well +with a pail of water, heard the gate-latch click, and, looking up, saw +Zell hurrying out with hat and shawl on, and having the appearance of +carrying something under her shawl. He felt a little surprise at +first, but then, Zell was so full of impulse, that he concluded: + +"She's gwine to meet Miss Edie. We'se all a-lookin' and leanin' on +Miss Edie, Lor bres her." + +But Zell was going to perdition. + +Little later the stage brought tired Edith home, but in better spirits +than before, as she had realized a somewhat fair sum for what she had +sold, and had been treated politely. + +After taking off her things, she asked, "Where's Zell?" + +"Lying down, I think," said Laura. "She complained of not feeling well +this afternoon." + +But Hannibal's anxious face in the door now caught her attention, and +she joined him at once. + +"Didn't you meet Miss Zell?" he asked in a whisper. + +"Meet her? No," answered Edith, excitedly. + +"Dat's quare. She went out with hat and shawl on a little while ago. +P'raps she's come back, and gone upstairs again." + +Trembling so she could hardly walk steadily, Edith hurried to her +room, and there saw Zell's note. Tearing it open, she only read the +first line, and then rushed down to her mother and Laura, sobbing: + +"Zell's gone." + +"Gone! Where?" they said, with dismayed faces. + +Edith's only reply was to look suddenly at her watch, put on her hat, +and dart out of the door. She saw that there were still ten minutes +before the evening boat passed the Pushton landing, and remembered +that it was sometimes delayed. There was a shorter road to the dock +than the one through the village, and this she took, with flying feet, +and a white but determined face. It would have been a terrible thing +for Van Dam to have met her then. She seemed sustained by supernatural +strength, and, walking and running by turns, made the mile and a half +in an incredibly short space of time. As she reached the top of the +hill above the landing, she saw the boat coming in to the dock. Though +panting and almost spent, again she ran at the top of her speed. Half- +way down she heard the plank ring out upon the wharf. + +"Stop!" she called. But her parched lips uttered only a faint sound, +like the cry of one in a dream. + +A moment later, as she struggled desperately forward, there came, like +the knell of hope, the command: + +"All aboard!" + +"Oh, wait, wait!" she again tried to call, but her tongue seemed +paralyzed. + +As she reached the commencement of the long dock, she saw the lines +cast off. The great wheels gave a vigorous revolution, and the boat +swept away. + +She was too late. She staggered forward a few steps more, and then all +her remaining strength went into one agonized cry: + +"Zell!" + +And she fell fainting on the dock. + +Zell heard that cry, and recognized the voice. Taking her hand from +Mr. Van Dam's arm, she covered her face in sudden remorseful weeping. + +But it was too late. + +She had left the shelter of home, and ventured out into the great +pitiless world on nothing better than Van Dam's word. It was like +walking a rotten plank out into the sea. + +Zell was lost! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +DESOLATION + + + +Not only did Edith's bitter cry startle poor Zell, coming to her ear +as a despairing recall from the battlements of heaven might have +sounded to a falling angel, but Arden Lacey was as thoroughly aroused +from his painful revery as if shaken by a giant hand. He had been down +to meet the boat, with many others, and was sending off some little +produce from their place. He had not noticed in the dusk the closely- +veiled lady; indeed, he rarely noticed any one unless they spoke to +him, and then gave but brief, surly attention. Only one had scanned +Zell curiously, and that was Tom Crowl. With his quick eye for +something wrong in human action, he was attracted by Zell's manner. He +could not make out through her thick veil who she was, in the +increasing darkness, but he saw that she was agitated, and that she +looked eagerly for the coming of the boat, also landward, where the +road came out on the dock, as if fearing or expecting something from +that quarter. But when he saw her join Van Dam, he recognized his old +bar-room acquaintance, and surmised that the lady was one of the Allen +family. Possessing these links in the chain, he was ready for the +next. Edith's presence and cry supplied this, and he chuckled +exultantly: + +"An elopement!" and ran in the direction of the sound. + +But Arden was already at Edith's side, having reached her almost at a +bound, and was gently lifting the unconscious girl, and regarding her +with a tenderness only equalled by his helplessness and perplexity in +not knowing what to do with her. + +The first impulse of his great strength was to carry her directly to +her home. But Edith was anything but ethereal, and long before he +could have passed the mile and a half, he would have fainted under the +burden, even though love nerved his arms. But while he stood in +piteous irresolution, there came out from the crowd that had gathered +round, a stout, middle-aged woman, who said, in a voice that not only +betokened the utmost confidence in herself, but also the assurance +that all the world had confidence in her: + +"Here, give me the girl. What do you men-folks know about women?" + +"I declare, it's Mrs. Groody from the hotel," ejaculated Tom Crowl, as +this delightful drama (to him) went on from act to act. + +"Standin' there and holdin' of her," continued Mrs. Groody, who was +sometimes a little severe on both sexes, "won't bring her to, unless +she fainted 'cause she wanted some one to hold her." + +A general laugh greeted this implied satire, but Arden, between anger +and desire to do something, was almost beside himself. He had the +presence of mind to rush to the boat-house for a bucket of water, and +when he arrived with it a man had also procured a lantern, which +revealed to the curious onlookers who gathered round with craning +necks the pale features of Edith Allen. + +"By golly, but it's one of them Allen girls," said Tom Crowl, eagerly. +"I see it all now. She's down to stop her sister, who's just run away +with one of those city scamps that was up here awhile ago. I saw her +join him and take his arm on the boat, but wasn't sure who she was +then." + +"Might know you was around, Tom Crowl," said Mrs. Groody. "There's +never nothing wrong going on but you see it. You are worse than any +old woman for gossip. Why don't you put on petticoats and go out to +tea for a livin'?" + +When the laugh ceased at Crowl's expense, he said: + +"Don't you put on airs, Mrs. Groody; you are as glad, to hear the news +as any one. It's a pity you turned up and spoiled Mr. Lacey's part of +the play, for, if this one is anything like her sister, she, perhaps, +wanted to be held, as you--" + +Tom's further utterance was effectually stopped by such a blow across +his mouth, from Lacey's hand, as brought the blood profusely on the +spot, and caused such disfigurement, for days after, that appropriate +justice seemed visited on the offending region. + +"Leave this dock," said Arden, sternly; "and if I trace any slander to +you concerning this lady or myself, I will break every bone in your +miserable body." + +Crowl shrank off amid the jeers of the crowd, but on reaching a safe +distance, said, "You will be sorry for this." + +Arden paid no need to him, for Edith, under Mrs. Groody's treatment, +gave signs of returning consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes, and +turned them wonderingly around; then came a look of wild alarm, as she +saw herself surrounded by strange bearded faces, that appeared both +savage and grotesque in the flickering light of the lantern." + +"O, Heaven! have mercy," she cried, faintly. "Where am I?" + +"Among friends, I assure you, Miss Allen," said Arden, kneeling at her +side. + +"Mr. Lacey! and are you here?" said Edith, trying to rise. "You surely +will protect me." + +"Do not be afraid, Miss Allen. No one would harm you for the world; +and Mrs. Groody is a good kind lady, and will see you safely home, I +am sure." + +Edith now became conscious that it was Mrs. Groody who was supporting +her, and regained confidence, as she recognized the presence of a +woman. + +"Law bless you, child, you needn't be scared. You have only had a +faint. I'll take care of you, as young Lacey says. Seems to me he's +got wonderfully polite since last summer," she muttered to herself. + +"But where am I?" asked Edith, with a bewildered air; "what has +happened?" + +"Oh, don't worry yourself; you'll soon be home and safe." + +But the memory of it all suddenly came to Edith, and even by the +lantern's light, Arden saw the sudden crimson pour into her face and +neck, She gave one wild, deprecating look around, and then buried her +face in her hands as if to hide the look of scorn she expected to see +on every face. + +The first arrow aimed by Zell's great wrong already quivered in her +heart. + +"Don't you think you could walk a little now, just enough to get into +the hack with me and go home?" asked the kind woman, in a soothing +voice. + +"Yes, yes," said Edith, eagerly; "let us get away at once." And with +Mrs. Groody's and Arden's assistance, she was soon seated in the hack, +and was glad to note that there was no other passenger. The ride was a +comparatively silent one. Edith was too exhausted from her desperate +struggle to reach the boat, and her heart was too bruised and sore, to +permit on her part much more than monosyllables, in answer to Mrs. +Groody's efforts at conversation. But as they stopped at the cottage +her new friend said, cheerily: + +"Don't take it so hard, my child; you ain't to blame. I'll stand by +you if no one else will. It don't take me long to know a good honest +girl when I see one, and I know you mean well. What's more, I've took +a likin' to you, and I can be a pretty fair sort of friend if I do +work for a livin'." + +Mrs. Groody was good if not grammatical. She had broad shoulders, that +had borne in their day many burdens--her own and others'. She had a +strong, stout frame, in which thumped a large, kindly heart. She had +long earned her bread by callings that brought her in contact with all +classes, and had learned to know the world very thoroughly without +becoming worldly or hardened. But she had a quick, sharp tongue, and +could pay anybody off in his own coin with interest. Everybody soon +found it to his advantage to keep on the right side of Mrs. Groody, +and the old habitues of the hotel were as polite and deferential to +her as if she were a duchess. She was one of those shrewd, strong, +cheery people, who would make themselves snug, useful, and influential +in a very short time, if set down anywhere on the face of the earth. + +Such a woman readily surmised the nature of Edith's trouble, and knew +well how deeply the shadow of Zell's disgrace would fall on the +family. Edith's desperate effort to save her sister, her bitter +humiliation and shrinking shame in view of the flight, all proved her +to be worthy of respect and confidence herself. When Mrs. Groody saw +that Edith lived in a little house, and was probably not in so high a +social position as to resent her patronage, her big heart yearned in +double sympathy over the poor girl, and she determined to help her in +the struggle she knew to be before her; so she said, kindly: + +"If you'll wait till a clumsy old body like me can get out, I'll see +you safe into your home." + +"Oh, no," said Edith, eagerly, following the strong instinct to keep a +stranger from seeing herself, her mother, and Laura in the first hour +of their shame. "You have been very kind, and I feel that I can never +repay you." + +"Bless you, child, I don't expect greenbacks for all I do. I want a +little of the Lord's work to come to me, though I'm afraid I fell from +grace long ago. But a body can't be pious in a hotel. There's so many +aggravatin' people and things that you think swearin', if you darsn't +say it out. But I'm a human sort of a heathen, after all, and I feel +sorry for you. Now ain't there somethin' I can do for you?" + +The driver stood with his lantern near the door, and its rays fell on +Edith's pale face and large, tearful eyes, and she turned, and for the +first time tried to see who this kind woman was, that seemed to feel +for her. Taking Mrs. Groody's hands, she said, in a voice of tremulous +pathos: + +"God bless you for speaking to me at all. I didn't think any one would +again who knew. You ask if you can do anything for me. If you'll only +get me work, I'll bless you every day of my life. No one on earth or +in heaven can help me, unless I get work. I'm almost desperate for it, +and I can't seem to find any that will bring us bread, but I'll do any +honest work, no matter what, and I'll take whatever people are willing +to give for it, till I can do better." Edith spoke in a rapid manner, +but in a tone that went straight to the heart. + +"Why, my poor child," said Mrs. Groody, wiping her eyes, "you can't do +work. You are pale as a ghost, and you look like a delicate lady." + +"What is there in this world for a delicate lady who has no money but +honest work?" asked Edith, in a tone that was almost stern. + +"I see that you are such a lady, and it seems that you ought to find +some lady-like work, if you must do it," said Mrs. Groody, musingly. + +"We have tried to get employment--almost any kind. I can't think my +sister would have taken her desperate course if we could have obtained +something to do. I know she ought to have starved first. But we were +not brought up to work, and we can't do anything well enough to +satisfy people, and we haven't time to learn. Besides, before this +happened, for some reason people stood aloof from us, and now it will +be far worse. Oh, what shall we do? What shall we do?" cried Edith, +despairingly; and in her trouble she seemed to turn her eyes away from +Mrs. Groody, with wild questioning of the future. + +Her new acquaintance was sniffling and blowing her nose in a manner +that betokened serious internal commotion. The driver, who would have +hustled any ordinary passenger out quickly enough, waited Mrs. +Groody's leisure at a respectful distance. He knew her potential +influence at the hotel. At last the good woman found her voice, though +it seemed a little husky: + +"Lor' bless you, child! I ain't got a millstun for a heart, and if I +had, you'd turn it into wax. If work's all you want, you shall have +it. I'm housekeeper at the hotel. You come to me as soon as you are +able, and we'll find something." + +"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Edith, fervidly. + +"Is dat you, Miss Edie?" called Hannibal's anxious voice. + +"Good-night, my dear," said Mrs. Groody, hastily, "Don't lose courage. +I ain't on as good terms with the Lord as I ought to be. I seem too +worried and busy to 'tend to religion; but I know enough about Him to +be sure that He will take care of a poor child that wants to do +right." + +"I don't understand how God lets happen all that's happened to-day. +The best I can believe is, that we are dealt with in a mass, and the +poor human atoms are lost sight of. But I am indeed grateful for your +kindness, and will come to-morrow and do anything I can. Good-by." + +And the hack rumbled away, leaving her in the darkness, with Hannibal +at the gate. + +"Oh, Hannibal, Hannibal," was all that Edith could say. + +"Is she done gone clean away?" asked Hannibal, in an awed whisper. + +"Would to heaven she had never been born!" said Edith, bitterly. "Help +me into the house, for I feel as if I should die." + +Hannibal, trembling with fear himself, supported poor, exhausted Edith +to a sofa, and then disappeared into the kitchen. + +Mrs. Allen and Laura came and stood with white faces by Edith's +languid, unnerved form. + +There was no need of asking questions. She had returned alone, with +her fresh young face looking old and drawn in its grief. + +At last Mrs. Allen said, with bitter emphasis: + +"She is no child of mine, from this day forth." + +Then followed such a dreary silence that it might seem that Zell had +died and was no more. + +At last Hannibal bustled in, making a most desperate effort to keep up +a poor show of courage and hope. He placed on a little table before +Edith a steaming hot cup of tea, some toast, and wine, but the food +was motioned away. + +"It would choke me," said Edith. + +Hannibal stood before her a moment, his quaint old visage working +under the influence of emotion, almost beyond control. At last he +managed to say: + +"Miss Edie, we'se all a leanin' on you. We'se nothin' but vines a +climbin' up de orange-bush. If you goes down, we all does. And now, +Miss Edie, I'd swallow pison for you. Won't you take a cup o' tea for +de sake of ole Hannibal? 'Cause your sweet face looks so pinched, +honey, dat I feels dat my ole black heart's ready to bust;" and +Hannibal, feeling that the limit of his restraint was reached, +retreated precipitately to the kitchen. + +The appeal, with its element of deep affection, was more needed by +Edith in her half-paralyzed state than even the material refreshment. +She sat up instantly, and drank the tea and wine, and ate a little of +the toast. Then taking the cup and glass into the kitchen: + +"There," she said, "see, I've drunk every drop. So don't worry about +me any more, my poor old Hannibal, but go to bed, after your hard +day's work." + +But Hannibal would not venture out of his dark corner, but muttered, +brokenly: + +"Lor--bress--you--Miss Edie--you'se an angel--I'se be better soon-- +I'se got--de hiccups." + +Edith thought it kindness to leave the old man to recover his self- +control in his own time and way, so she said: + +"Good-night, my faithful old friend. You're worth your weight in +gold." + +Meantime, Laura had helped Mrs. Allen to her room but now she came +running down to Edith, with new trouble in her face, saying: + +"Mother's crying so, I can't do anything with her." + +At first Mrs. Allen's heart seemed hardened against her erring child, +but on reaching her room she stood a few moments irresolutely, then +went to a drawer, took out an old faded picture-case and opened it. +From it Zell smiled out upon her, a little, dimpled baby. Then, as if +by a sudden impulse rare to her, she pressed her lips against the +unconscious face, and threw herself into her low chair, sobbing so +violently that Laura became alarmed. + +Even in that arid place, Mrs. Allen's heart, there appeared a little +oasis of mother love, as this last and bitterest sorrow pierced its +lowest depths. She might cast out from her affection the grown, +sinning daughter, but not the baby that once slept upon her breast. + +As Edith came and took her hand she said, brokenly: + +"It seems--but yesterday--that she was--a wee black-eyed--little +thing--in my arms--and your father--came--and looked at her--so +proudly--tenderly--" + +"Would to heaven she had died then!" said Edith, sternly. + +"It would have been better if we had all died then,", said Mrs. Allen +drearily, and becoming quiet. + +Edith's words fell like a chill upon her unwontedly stirred heart, and +old habits of feeling and action resumed sway. + +With Mrs. Allen's words ended the miserable day of Zell's flight. +Hannibal's words were true. Zell, in her unnatural absence, would be +more in the way--a heavier burden--than if she had become a helpless +invalid upon their hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +EDITH'S TRUE KNIGHT + + + +The next morning Edith was too ill to rise. She had become chilled +after her extraordinary exertion of the previous evening, and a severe +cold was the consequence; and this, with the nervous prostration of an +over-taxed system, made her appear more seriously indisposed than she +really was. For the sake of her mother and Laura, she wished to be +present at the meagre little breakfast which her economy now +permitted, but found it impossible; and later in the day her mind +seemed disposed to wander. + +Mrs. Allen and Laura were terror-stricken at this new trouble. As +Hannibal had said, they were all leaning on Edith. They had lost +confidence in themselves, and now hoped nothing from the outside +world. They had scarcely the shadow of an expectation that Van Dam +would marry Zell, and therefore they knew that worse than work would +separate them from all old connections, and they had learned to hope +nothing from the people of Pushton. Poor, feverish, wandering Edith +seemed the only one who could keep them from falling into the abyss of +utter want. They instinctively felt that total wreck was impossible as +long as she kept her hand upon the helm; but now they had all the wild +alarm of those who are drifting helplessly toward a reef, with a deep +and stormy sea on either side of it. Thus to the natural anxiety of +affection was added sickening fear. + +Poor old Hannibal had no fear for himself. His devotion to Edith +reminded one of a faithful dog: it was so strong, instinctive, +unreasoning. He realized vaguely that his whole existence depended on +Edith's getting well, and yet we doubt whether he thought of himself +any more than the Newfoundland, who watches beside the bed, and then +beside the grave of a loved master, till famine, that form of pain +which humanity cannot endure, robs him of life. + +"We must have a physician immediately," said Laura, with white lips. + +"Oh, no," murmured Edith; "we can't afford it." + +"We must," said Laura, with a sudden rush of tears. "Everything +depends on you." + +Hannibal, who heard this brief dialogue, went silently downstairs, and +at once started in quest of Arden Lacey. + +"If he is quar, he seemed kind o' human; and I'se believe he'll help +us now." + +Arden was on the way to the barn, having just finished a farmer's +twelve o'clock dinner, when Hannibal entered the yard. An angel of +light could not have been more welcome than this dusky messenger, for +he came from the centre of all light and hope to poor Arden. Then a +feeling of alarm took possession of him. Had anything happened to +Edith? He had seen her shrinking shame. Had it led her to--and he +shuddered at the thought his wild imagination suggested. It was almost +a relief when Hannibal said: + +"Oh, Mr. Lacey, I'se sure from de way you acted when we fust come, dat +you can feel for people in trouble. Miss Edie's berry sick, and I +don't know whar to go for a doctor, and she won't have any; but she +mus, and right away. Den again, I oughter not leave, for dey's all +nearly dead with trouble and cryin'." + +"You are a good, faithful fellow," said Arden, heartily. "Go back and +do all you can for Miss Edith, and I'll bring a doctor myself, and +much quicker too than you could." + +Before Hannibal reached home, Arden galloped past him, and the old man +chuckled: + +"De drunken Laceys' mighty good neighbors when dey's sober." + +As may well be imagined, recent events, as far as he understood them, +had stirred Arden's sensitive nature to the very depths. Hiding his +feelings from all save his mother, and often from her; appearing to +his neighbors stolid and sullen in the extreme, he was, in fact, in +his whole being, like a morbidly-excited nerve. He did not shrink from +the world because indifferent to it, but because it wounded him when +he came in contact with it. He seemed so out of tune with society that +it produced only jarring discord. His father's course brought him many +real slights, and these he resented as we have seen, and he resented +fancied slights quite as often, and thus he had cut himself off from +the sympathies, and even the recognition, of nearly all. + +But what human soul can dwell alone? The true hermit finds in +communion with the Divine mind the perfection of companionship. But +Arden knew not God. He had heard of Him all his life; but Jove and +Thor were images more familiar to his mind than that of his Creator. +He loved his mother and sister, but their life seemed a poor, shaded +little nook, where they toiled and moped. And so, to satisfy the +cravings of his lonely heart, he had created and peopled an unreal +world of his own, in which he dwelt most of the time. As his interest +in the real world ceased, his imagination more vividly portrayed the +shadowy one, till at last, in the scenes of poetry and fiction, and +the splendid panorama of history, he thought he might rest satisfied, +and find all the society he needed in converse with those whom, by a +refinement of spiritualism, he could summon to his side from any age +or land. He secretly exulted in the still greater magic by which the +unreal creatures of poetic thought would come at his volition, and he +often smiled to think how royally attended was "old, drunken Lacey's" +son, whom many of the neighbors thought scarcely better than the +horses he drove. + +Thus he lived under a spell of the past, in a world moon-lighted by +sentiment and fancy, surrounded by his ideals of those about whom he +read, and Shakespeare's vivid, life-like women were better known to +him than any of the ladies of Pushton. But dreams cannot last in our +material world, and ghosts vanish in the sunlight of fact. Woman's +nature is as beautiful and fascinating now as when the master-hand of +the world's greatest poet delineated it, and when living, breathing +Edith Allen stepped suddenly among his shadows, seemingly so luminous, +they vanished before her, as the stars pale into nothingness when the +eastern sky is aglow with morning. Now, in all his horizon, she only +shone, but the past seemed like night, and the present, day. + +The circumstances under which he had met Edith had, in brief time, +done more to acquaint him with her than years might have accomplished, +and for the first time in his life he saw a superior girl with the +distorting medium of his prejudice pushed aside. Therefore she was a +sudden beautiful revelation to him, as vivid as unexpected. He did not +believe any such being existed, and indeed there did not, if we +consider into what he came to idealize Edith. But a better Edith +really lived than the unnatural paragon that he pictured to himself, +and the reality was capable of a vast improvement, though not in the +direction that his morbid mind would have indicated. + +The treatment of his sister, the sudden ceasing of all intercourse, +and the appearance of Gus Elliot upon the scene, had cruelly wounded +his fair ideal, but with a lover's faith and a poet's fancy he soon +repaired the ravages of facts. He assured himself that Edith did not +know the character of the men who visited her house. + +Then came Crowl's gossip, the knowledge of her poverty, and her +wretched errands to New York to dispose of the relics of the happy +past. He gathered from such observations as he could maintain without +being suspected, by every crumb of gossip that he could pick up (for +once he listened to gossip as if it were gospel), that they were in +trouble, that Edith was looking for work, and that she was so superior +to the rest of the family that they now all deferred to her and leaned +upon her. Then, to his deep satisfaction, he had seen Elliot, the +morning after his scathing repulse, going to the train, and looking +forlorn and sadly out of humor, and he was quite sure he had not been +near the little cottage since. Arden needed but little fact upon which +to rear a wondrous superstructure, and here seemed much, and all in +Edith's favor, and he longed with an intensity beyond language to do +something to help her. + +Then came the tragedy of Zell's flight, Edith's heroic and almost +superhuman effort to save her, now followed by her pathetic weakness +and suffering, and no knight in the romantic age of chivalry ever more +wholly and loyally devoted himself to the high-born lady of his +choice, than did Arden to the poor sick girl at whom the finger of +scorn would now be generally pointed in Pushton. + +To come back to our hero, galloping away on his old farm horse to find +a country doctor, may seem a short step down from the sublime. And so, +perhaps, it may be to those whose ideal of the sublime is only in +outward and material things. But to those who look past these things +to the passionate human heart, the same in every age, it will be +evident that Arden was animated by the same spirit with which he would +have sought and fought the traditional dragon. + +Dr. Neak, a new-comer who was gaining some little name for skill and +success, and was making the most of it, was at home; but on Arden's +hurried application, ahemmed, hesitated, colored a little, and at last +said: + +"Look here, Mr.---(I beg your pardon, I've not the pleasure of knowing +your name), I'm a comparative stranger in Pushton, and am just gaining +some little reputation among the better classes. I would rather not +compromise myself by attendance upon that family. If you can't get any +one else, and the girl is suffering, of course I'll try and go, but--" + +"Enough," interrupted Arden, starting up blazing with wrath. "You +should spell your name with an S. I want a man as well as a +physician," and, with a look of utter contempt, he hastened away, +leaving the medical man somewhat anxious, not about Edith, but whether +he had taken the best course in view of his growing reputation. + +Arden next traced out Dr. Blunt, who readily promised to come. He +attended all alike, and charged roundly also. + +"Business is business," was his motto. "People who employ me must +expect to pay. After all, I'm the cheapest man in the place, for I +tell my patients the truth, and cure them as quickly as possible." + +Arden's urgency soon brought him to Edith's side, and his practiced +eye saw no serious cause for alarm, and having heard more fully the +circumstances, he said: + +"She will be well in a few days if she is kept very quiet, and nothing +new sets in. Of course she would be sick after last night. One might +as well put his hand in the fire and not expect it to burn him, as to +get very warm and then cool off suddenly and not expect to be ill. Her +pulse indicates general depression of her system, and need of rest. +That's all." + +After prescribing remedies and a tonic, he said, "Let me know if I am +needed again," and departed in rather ill-humor. + +Meeting Arden's anxious, questioning face at the gate, he said +gruffly: + +"I thought from what you said the girl was dying. Used up and a bad +cold, that's all. Somewhat feverish yourself, ain't you?" he added +meaningly. + +Though Arden colored under the doctor's satire, he was chiefly +conscious of a great relief that his idol was not in danger. His only +reply was the sullen, impassive expression he usually turned toward +the world. + +As the doctor rode away, Hannibal joined him, saying: + +"Mr. Lacey, you'se a friend in need, and if you only knowed what an +angel you'se servin', you wouldn't look so cross." + +"Do I look cross?" asked Arden, his face becoming friendly in a +moment. "Well, it wasn't with you, still less with Miss Edith; for +even you cannot serve her more gladly than I will. That old doctor +r'iled me a little, though I can forgive him, since he says she is not +seriously ill." + +"I'se glad you feels your privileges," said Hannibal, with some +dignity. "I'se knowed Miss Edie eber since she was a baby, and when we +lived on de avenue, de biggest and beautifullest in de city come to +our house, but none of 'em could compare wid my young lady. I don't +care what folks say, she's jes as good now, if she be poor, and her +sister hab run away, poor chile. De world don't know all;" and old +Hannibal shook his white head sadly and reproachfully. + +This panegyric found strong echo in Arden's heart, but his habit of +reticence and his sensitive shrinking from any display of feeling +permitted him only to say, "I am sure every word you say is more than +true, and you will do me a great favor when you let me know how I can +serve Miss Edith." + +Hannibal saw that he need waste no more ammunition on Arden, so he +pulled out the prescriptions, and said: + +"The doctor guv me dese, but, Lor bress you, my ole jints is stiff, +and I'd be a week in gittin' down and back from de willage." + +"That's enough," interrupted Arden. "You shall have the medicines in +half an hour;" and he kept his word. + +"He is quar," muttered Hannibal, looking after him. "Neber saw a man +so 'bligin'. Folks say winegar ain't nothin' to him, but he seems +sweet on Miss Edie, sure 'nuff. What 'ud he say, 'You'se do me great +favor to tell me how I can serve Miss Edie'? I'se hope it'll last," +chuckled Hannibal, retiring to his domain in the kitchen, "'cause I'se +gwine to do him a heap ob favors." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A MYSTERY + + + +At Arden's request his mother called in the evening, and also Mrs. +Groody, from the hotel. Hannibal met them, and stated the doctor's +orders. Mrs. Allen and Laura did not feel equal to facing any one. +Though the old servant was excessively polite, the callers felt rather +slighted that they saw no member of the family. They went away a +little chilled in consequence, and contented themselves thereafter by +sending a few delicacies and inquiring how Edith was. + +"If you have any self-respect at all," said Rose Lacey to her mother, +"you will not go there again till you are invited. It's rather too +great a condescension for you to go at all, after what has happened." + +Arden listened with a black look, and asked, rather sharply: + +"Will you never learn to distinguish between Miss Edith and the +others?" + +"Yes," said Rose, dryly, "when she gives me a chance." + +The doctor's view of Edith's case was correct. Her vigorous and +elastic constitution soon rallied from the shock it had received. +Hannibal had sent to the village for nutritious diet, which he knew so +well how to prepare, and, after a few days, she was quite herself +again. But with returning strength came also a sense of shame, +anxiety, and a torturing dread of the future. The money accruing from +her last sale of jewelry would not pay the debts resting on them now, +and she could not hope to earn enough to pay the balance remaining, in +addition to their support. Her mother suggested the mortgaging of her +place. She had at first repelled the idea, but at last entertained it +reluctantly. There seemed no other resource. It would put off the evil +day of utter want, and might give her time to learn something by which +she could compete with trained workers. + +Then there was the garden. Might not that and the orchard, in time, +help them out of their troubles? + +As the long hours of her convalescence passed, she sat at her window +and scanned the little spot with a wistfulness that might have been +given to one of Eden-like proportions. She was astonished to see how +her strawberries had improved since she hoed them, but noted in dismay +that both they and the rest of the garden were growing very weedy. + +When the full knowledge of their poverty and danger dawned upon her, +she felt that it would not be right for Malcom to come any more. At +the same time she could not explain things to him; so she sent a +written request through the mail for his bill, telling him not to come +any more. This action, following the evening when Gus Elliot had +surprised her in the garden, perplexed and rather nettled Malcom, who +was, to use his own expression, "a bit tetchy." Their money had grown +so scarce that Edith could not pay the bill, and she was ashamed to go +to see him till there was some prospect of her doing so. Thus Malcom, +though disposed to be very friendly, was lost to her at this critical +time, and her garden suffered accordingly. She and Hannibal had done +what they could, but of late her illness, and the great accession of +duties resting on the old servant, had caused complete neglect in her +little plantation of fruit and vegetables. Thus, while all her crops +were growing well, the weeds were gaining on them, and even Edith knew +that the vigor of evil was in them, and that, unchecked, they would +soon make a tangled swamp of that one little place of hope. She could +not ask Hannibal to work there now, for he was overburdened already. +Laura seemed so feeble and crushed that her strength was scarcely +equal to taking care of her mother, and the few lighter duties of +housework. Therefore, though the June sunshine rested on the little +garden, and all nature seemed in the rapture of its early summer life, +poor, practical Edith saw only the pestiferous weeds that threatened +to destroy her one slender prospect of escape from environing +difficulties. At last she turned away. To the sad and suffering, +scenes most full of cheer and beauty often seem the most painful +mockery. + +She brooded over her affairs most of the day, dwelling specially on +the suggestion of a mortgage. She felt extreme reluctance in perilling +her home. Then again she said to herself, "It will at least give me +time, and perhaps the place will be sold for debt, for we must live." + +The next morning she slept late, her weary, overtaxed frame asserting +its need. But she rose greatly refreshed, and it seemed that her +strength had come back. With returning vigor hopefulness revived. She +felt some cessation of the weary, aching sorrow at her heart. The +world is phosphorescent to the eyes of youth, and even ingulfing waves +of misfortune will sometimes gleam with sudden brightness. + +The morning light also brought Edith a pleasant surprise, for, as she +was dressing, her eyes eagerly sought the strawberry-bed. She had been +thinking, "If I only continue to gain in this style, I shall soon be +able myself to attack the weeds." Therefore, instead of a helpless +look, such as she gave yesterday, her glance had something vengeful +and threatening in it. But the moment she opened the lattice, so that +she could see, an exclamation came from her lips, and she threw back +the blinds, in order that there might be no mistake as to the wonder +that startled her. What magic had transformed the little place since, +in the twilight of the previous evening, she had given the last +discouraged look in that direction? There was scarcely a weed to be +seen in the strawberry-bed. They had not only been cut off, but raked +away, and here and there she could see a berry reddening in the +morning sun. In addition, some of her most important vegetables, and +her prettiest flower border, had been cleaned and nicely dressed. A +long row of Dan O'Rourk peas, that had commenced to sprawl on the +ground, was now hedged in by brush; and, better still, thirty cedar +poles stood tall and straight among her Lima beans, whose long slender +shoots had been vainly feeling round for a support the last few days. +Her first impulse was to clap her hands with delight and exclaim: +"How, in the name of wonder, could he do it all in a night! Oh, +Malcom, you are a canny Scotchman, but you put the 'black art' to very +white uses." + +She dressed in excited haste, meaning to question Hannibal, but, as +she left her room, Laura met her, and said, in a tone of the deepest +despondency-- + +"Mother seems very ill. She has not felt like herself since that +dreadful night, but we did not like to tell you, fearing it would put +back your recovery." + +The rift in the heavy clouds, through which the sun had gleamed for a +moment, now closed, and a deeper gloom seemed to gather round them. In +sudden revulsion Edith said, bitterly: + +"Are we to be persecuted to the end? Cannot the heavy hand of +misfortune be lifted a moment?" + +She found her mother suffering from a low, nervous fever, and quite +delirious. + +Hannibal was at once despatched for the doctor, who, having examined +Mrs. Allen's symptoms, shook his head, saying: + +"Nothing but good nursing will bring her through this." + +Edith's heart sank like lead. What prospect was there for work now, +even if Mrs. Groody gave it to her, as she had promised? She saw +nothing before her but the part of a weary watcher, for perhaps +several weeks. She hesitated no longer, but resolved to mortgage her +place at once. Her mother must have delicacies and good attendance, +and she must have time to extricate herself from the difficulties into +which she had been brought by false steps at the beginning. Therefore +she told Hannibal to give her an early lunch, after which she would +walk to the village. + +"You isn't able," said he earnestly. + +"Oh, yes I am," she replied; "better able than to stay at home and +worry. I must have something settled, and my mind at rest, even for a +little while, or I shall go distracted." Then she added, "Did you see +Malcom here early this morning?" + +"No, Miss Edie, he hasn't been here." + +"Go look at the garden." + +He returned with eyes dilated in wonder, and asked quickly, "Miss +Edie, when was all dat done?" + +"Between dark last night and when I got up this morning. It seems like +magic, don't it? But of course it is Malcom's work. I only wish I +could see him." + +But Hannibal shook his head ominously and said with emphasis, "Dat +little Scotchman couldn't scratch around like dat, even if de debil +was arter him. 'Tain't his work." + +"Why, whose else could it be?" asked Edith, sipping a strong cup of +coffee, with which she was fortifying herself for the walk. + +Hannibal only shook his head with a very troubled expression, but at +last he ventured: + +"If 'tis a spook, I hope it won't do nothin' wuss to us." + +Even across Edith's pale face a wan smile flitted at this solution of +the mystery, and she said: + +"Why, Hannibal, you foolish old fellow! The idea of a ghost hoeing a +strawberry-bed and sticking in bean-poles!" + +But Hannibal's superstitious nature was deeply stirred. He had been +under a severe strain himself of late, and the succession of sorrows +and strange experiences was telling on him as well as on the others. +He could not indulge in a nervous fever, like Mrs. Allen, but he had +reached that stage when he could easily see visions, and tremble +before the slightest vestige of the supernatural. So he replied a +little doggedly: + +"Spooks does a heap ob quar tings, Miss Edie. I'd tink it was Massa +Allen, ony I knows dat he neber hab a hoe in his hand all his life. I +doesn't like it. I'd radder hab de weeds." + +"O Hannibal, Hannibal! I couldn't believe it of you. I'll go and see +Malcom, just to satisfy you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A DANGEROUS STEP + + + +Edith took her deed, and went first to Mr. Hard. There were both +coldness and curiosity in his manner, but he could gather little from +Edith's face through her thick veil. + +She had a painful shrinking from meeting people again after what had +happened, and this was greatly increased by the curious and +significant looks she saw turned toward her as soon as it was surmised +who she was. + +Mr. Hard promptly declined to lend any money. He "never did such +things," he said. + +"Where would I be apt to get it?" asked Edith, despondently. + +"I scarcely know. Money is scarce, and people don't like to lend it on +country mortgages, especially when there may be trouble. Lawyer Keen +might give you some information." + +To his office Edith went, with slow, heavy steps, and presented her +case. + +Mr. Keen was a red-faced, burly-looking man, hiding the traditional +shrewdness of a village lawyer under a bluff, outspoken manner. He had +a sort of good-nature, which, though not lending him to help others +who were in trouble, kept him from trying to get them into more +trouble, and he quite prided himself on this. He heard Edith partly +through, and then interrupted her, saying: + +"Couldn't think of it, miss. Widows, orphans, and churches are +institutions on which a fellow can never foreclose. I'll give you good +advice, and won't charge you anything for it. You had better keep out +of debt." + +"But I must have the money," said Edith. + +"Then you have come to the wrong shop for it," replied the lawyer, +coolly. "Here's Crowl, now, he lends where I wouldn't. He's got money +of his own, while I invest mainly for other people." + +Edith's attention was thus directed to another red-faced man, whom, +thus far, she had scarcely noticed, though he had been watching her +with the closest scrutiny. He was quite corpulent, past middle age, +and not much taller than herself. He was quite bald, and had what +seemed a black moustache, but Edith's quick eye noted that it was +unskilfully dyed. There seemed a wide expanse in his heavy, flabby +cheeks, and the rather puggish nose appeared insignificant between +them. A slight tobacco stain in one corner of his mouth did not +increase his attractions to Edith, and she positively shrank from the +expression of his small, cunning black eyes. He was dressed both +showily and shabbily, and a great breastpin was like a blotch upon his +rumpled shirt-bosom. + +"Let me see your deed, my dear," he said, with coarse familiarity. + +"My name is Miss Allen," replied Edith, with dignity. + +The man paid little heed to her rebuke, but looked over the deed with +slow and microscopic scrutiny. At last he said to Edith, whom nothing +but dire necessity impelled to have dealings with so disagreeable a +person: + +"Will you come with me to my office?" + +Reluctantly she followed. At first she had a strong impulse to have +nothing to do with him, but then she thought, "It makes no difference +of whom I borrow the money, for it must be paid in any case, and +perhaps I can't get it anywhere else." + +"Are you sure there is no other mortgage?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Edith. + +"How much do you want?" + +"I will try to make four hundred answer." + +"I suppose you know how hard it is to borrow money now," said Mr. +Crowl, in a depressing manner, "especially in cases like this. I don't +believe you'd get a dollar anywhere else in town. Even where +everything is good and promising, we usually get a bonus on such a +loan. The best I could do would be to let you have three hundred and +sixty on such a mortgage." + +"Then give me my deed. The security is good, and I'm not willing to +pay more than seven per cent." + +Old Crowl looked a moment at her resolute face, beautiful even in its +pallor and pain, and a new thought seemed to strike him. + +"Well, well," said he, with an awkward show of gallantry, "one can't +do business with a pretty girl as with a man. You shall make your own +terms." + +"I wish to make no terms whatever," said Edith, frigidly. "I only +expect what is right and just." + +"And I'm the man that'll do what's right and just when appealed to by +the fair unfortunate," said Mr. Crowl, with a wave of his hand. + +Edith's only response to this sentiment was a frown, and an impatient +tapping of the floor with her foot. + +"Now, see how I trust you," he continued, filling out a check. "There +is the money. I'll draw up the papers, and you may sign them at your +leisure. Only just put your name to this receipt, which gives the +nature of our transaction;" and, in a scrawling hand, he soon stated +the case. + +It was with strong misgivings that Edith took the money and gave her +signature, but she did not see what else to do, and she was already +very weary. + +"You may call again the first time you are in the village, and by that +time I'll have things fixed up. You see now what it is to have a +friend in need." + +Edith's only reply was a bow, and she hastened to the bank. The +cashier looked curiously at her, and as he saw Crowl's check, smiled a +little significant smile which she did not like; but, at her request, +he placed the amount, and what was left from the second sale of +jewelry, to her credit, and gave her a small check-book. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +SCORN AND KINDNESS + + + +Though her strength hardly seemed equal to it, she determined to go +and see Malcom, for she felt very grateful to him. And yet the little +time she had been in the village made her fear to speak to him or any +one again, and she almost felt that she would like to shrink into some +hidden place and die. + +Quiet, respectable Pushton had been dreadfully scandalized by Zell's +elopement with a man who by one brief visit had gained such bad +notoriety. Those who had stood aloof, surmised, and doubted about the +Allens before, now said, triumphantly, "I told you so." Good, kind, +Christian people were deeply pained that such a thing could have +happened; and it came to be the general opinion that the Allens were +anything but an acquisition to the neighborhood. + +"If they are going to bring that style of men here, the sooner they +move away the better," was a frequent remark. All save the "baser +sort" shrank from having much to do with them, and again Edith was +insulted by the bold advances of some brazen clerks and shop-boys as +she passed along. She also saw significant glances and whisperings, +and once or twice detected a pointing finger. + +With cheeks burning with shame and knees trembling with weakness, she +reached Malcom's gate, to which she clung panting for a moment, and +then passed in. The little man had his coat off, and, stooping in his +strawberry-bed, he did look very small indeed. Edith approached quite +near before he noticed her. He suddenly straightened himself up almost +as a jumping-jack might, and gave her a sharp, surprised look. He had +heard the gossip in several distorted forms, but what hurt him most +was that she did not come or send to him. But when he saw her standing +before him with her head bent down like a moss-rosebud wilting in the +sun, when he met her timid, deprecating glance, his soft heart +relented instantly, and coming toward her he said: + +"An' ha' ye coom to see ould Malcom at last? What ha' I dune that I +suld be sae forgotten?" + +"You were not forgotten, Mr. McTrump. God knows that I have too few +friends to forget the best of them," answered Edith, in a voice of +tremulous pathos. + +After that Malcom was wax in her hands, and with moistened eyes he +stood gazing at her in undisguised admiration. + +"I have been through deep trouble, Mr. McTrump," continued she, "and +perhaps you, like so many others, may think me not fit to speak to you +any more. Besides, I have been very sick, and really ought not to be +out to-day. Indeed I feel very weak. Isn't there some place where I +could sit down?" + +"Now God forgie me for an uncoo Highlander," cried Malcom, springing +forward, "to think that I suld let ye ston there, like a tall, white, +swayin' calla lily, in the rough wind. Take me arm till I support ye +to the best room o' me house." + +Edith did take and cling to it with the feeling of one ready to fall. + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump, you are too kind," she murmured. + +"Why suld I not be kind?" he said, heartily, "when I see ye nipt by +the wourld's unkindness? Why suld I not be kind? Is the rose there to +blame because a weed has grown alongside? Ye could na help it that the +wild bird flitted, and I heerd how ye roon like a brave lassie to stop +her. But the evil wourld is quick to see the bad and slow to see the +gude." And Malcom escorted her like a "leddy o' high degree" to his +little parlor, and there she told him and his wife all her trouble, +and Malcom seemed afflicted with a sudden cold in his head. Then Mrs. +McTrump bustled in and out in a breezy eagerness to make her +comfortable. + +"Ye're a stranger in our toon," she said, "and sae I was once mysel, +an' I ken how ye feel." + +"An' the Gude Book, which I hope ye read," added the gallant Malcom, +"says hoo in entertainin' a stranger ye may ha' an angel aroond." + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, with peony-like face, "Hannibal is the +only one who calls me that, and he doesn't know any better." + +"Why suld he know ony better?" responded Malcom quickly. "I ha' never +seen an angel, na mair than I ha' seen a goolden harp, but I'm a +thinkin' a modest bonny lassie like yoursel cooms as near to ane as +anything can in this world." + +"But, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, with a half-pathetic, half-comic face, +"I am in such deep trouble that I shall soon grow old and wrinkled, so +I shall not be an angel long." + +"Na, na, dinna say that," said Malcom earnestly. "An ye will, ye may +keepit the angel a-growin' within ye alway, though ye live as old as +Methuselah. D'ye see this wee brown seed? There's a mornin'-glory vine +hidden in it, as would daze your een at the peep o' day wi' its gay +blossoms. An' ye see my ould gudewife there? Ah, she will daze the een +o' the greatest o' the earth in the bright springtime o' the +Resurrection; and though I'm a little mon here, it may be I'll see +o'er the heads of soom up there." + +"An ye had true humeelity ye'd be a-hopin' to get there, instead of +expectin' to speir o'er the heads o' yer betters," said his wife in a +rebuking tone. + +"'A-hopin' to get there'!" said Malcom with some warmth. "Why suld I +hope when 'I _know_ that my Redeemer liveth'?" + +Edith's eyes filled with wistful tears, for the quaint talk of these +old people suggested a hope and faith that she knew nothing of. But, +in a low voice, she said, "Why does God let his creatures suffer so +much?" + +"Bless your heart, puir child, He suffered mair than ony on us," said +Malcom tenderly. "But ye'll learn it a' soon. He who fed the famishin' +would bid ye eat noo. But wait a bit till ye see what I'll bring ye." + +In a moment he was back with a dainty basket of Triomphe de Gand +strawberries, and Edith uttered an exclamation of delight as she +inhaled their delicious aroma. + +"They are the first ripe the season, an' noo see what the gudewife +will do with them." + +Soon their hulls were off, and, swimming in a saucer of cream, they +were added to the dainty little lunch that Mrs. McTrump had prepared. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Edith, drawing a long breath, "you can't know how you +ease my poor sore heart. I began to think all the world was against +me." + +At this Malcom beat such a precipitate retreat that he half stumbled +over a chair, but outside the door he ventured to say: + +"An ye coom out I'll cut ye a posy before ye go." But Edith saw him +rub his rough sleeve across his eyes as he passed the window. His wife +said, in a grave gentle tone: + +"Would ye might learn to know Him who said, 'Be of good cheer, I have +overcome the wourld.'" + +Edith shook her head sadly, and said, "I don't understand Him, and He +seems far off." + +"It's only seemin', me dear," said the old woman kindly, "but, as +Malcom says, ye'll learn it a' by and by." + +Mrs. McTrump was one of those simple souls who never presume to "talk +religion" to any one. "I can ony venture what I hope'll be a 'word in +season' noo and then, as the Maister gies me a chance," she would say +to her husband. + +Though she did not know it, she had spread before Edith a Gospel +feast, and her genuine, hearty sympathy was teaching more than +eloquent sermons could have done, and already the grateful girl was +questioning: + +"What makes these people differ so from others?" + +With some dismay she saw how late it was growing, and hastened out to +Malcom, who had cut an exquisite little bouquet for her, and had +another basket of berries for her to take to her mother. + +"Mr. McTrump," said Edith, "it's time we had a settlement; your +kindness I never can repay, but I am able now to carry out my +agreement." + +"Don't bother me wi' that noo," said Malcom, rather testily. "I ha' no +time to make oot your account in the height o' the season. Let it ston +till I ha' time. An' ye might help me soomtimes make up posies far the +grand folk at the hotel. But how does your garden sin ye dismissed +ould Malcom?" + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, slyly, "do you know you almost scared +old Hannibal out of his wits by the wonders you wrought last night or +this morning in that same garden you inquire about so innocently. How +can you work so fast and hard?" + +"The woonders I wrought! Indeed I've not been near the garden sin ye +told me not to coom. Ye could hardly expect otherwise of a Scotchman." + +"Who, then, could it be?" said Edith, a little startled herself now, +and she explained the mystery of the garden. + +He was as nonplussed as herself, but, scratching his bushy head, he +said, with a canny look, "I wud be glad if Hannibal's 'spook,' as he +ca's it, would eoom doon and hoe a bit for me," and Edith was so +cheered and refreshed that she could even join him in the laugh. + +They sent her away enveloped in the fragrance of strawberries and +roses from the little basket she carried. But the more grateful aroma +of human sympathy seemed to create a buoyant atmosphere around her; +and she passed back through the village strengthened and armed against +the cold or scornful looks of those who, knowing her to be "wounded," +had not even the grace to pass by indifferently "on the other side." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +A HORROR OF GREAT DARKNESS + + + +By the time Edith reached home the transient strength and transient +brightening of the skies seemed to pass away. Her mother was no better +and the poor girl saw too plainly the grisly spectres, care, want, and +shame upon her hearth, to fear any good fairy that left such traces as +she saw in her garden. But the mystery troubled her; she longed to +know who it was. As she mused upon it on her way home, Arden Lacey +suddenly occurred to her, and there was a glimmer of a smile and a +faint increase of color on her pale face. But she did not suggest her +suspicion to Hannibal, when he eagerly asked if it were Malcom. + +"No, strange to say, it was not," said Edith. "Who could it have +been?" + +Hannibal's face fell, and he looked very solemn. "Sumpen awful's gwine +to happen, Miss Edie," he said, in a sepulchral tone. + +Edith broke into a sudden reckless laugh, and said, "I think something +awful is happening about as fast as it can. But never mind, Hannibal, +we'll watch to-night, and perhaps he will come again." + +"Oh, Miss Edie, I'se hope you'll 'scuse me. I couldn't watch for a +spook to save my life. I'se gwine to bed as soon as it's dark, and +cover up my head till mornin'." + +"Very well," said Edith, quietly. "I'm going to sit up with mother to- +night, and if it comes again, I'll see it." + +"De good Lord keep you safe, Miss Edie," said Hannibal, tremblingly. +"You'se know I'd die for you in a minit; but I'se couldn't wateh for a +spook nohow," and Hannibal crept away, looking as if the very worst +had now befallen them. + +Edith was too weary and sad even to smile at the absurd superstition +of her old servant, for with her practical, positive nature she could +scarcely understand how even the most ignorant could harbor such +delusions. She said to Laura, "Let me sleep till nine o'clock, and +then I will watch till morning." + +Laura did not waken her till ten. + +After Edith had shaken off her lethargy, she said, "Why, Laura, you +look ready to faint!" + +With a despairing little cry, Laura threw herself on the floor, and +buried her face in her sister's lap, sobbing: + +"I am ready to faint--body and soul. Oh, Edie, Edie, what shall we do? +Oh, that I were sure death was an eternal sleep, as some say! How +gladly I would close my eyes to-night and never wish to open them +again! My heart is ashes, and my hope is dead. And yet I am afraid to +die, and more afraid to live. Ever since--Zell--went--the future has +been--a terror to me. Edith," she continued, after a moment, in a low +voice, that trembled and was full of dread, "Zell has not written--the +silence of the grave seems to have swallowed her. _He has not married +her!_" and an agony of grief convulsed Laura's slight frame. + +Edith's eyes grew hard and tearless, and she said sternly, "It were +better the grave had swallowed her than such a gulf of infamy." + +Laura suddenly became still, her sobs ceasing. Slowly she raised such +a white, terror-stricken face, that Edith was startled. She had never +seen her elder sister, once so stately and proud, then so apathetic, +moved like this. + +"Edith," she said, in an awed whisper, "what is there before us? +Zell's, flight, like a flash of lightning, has revealed to me where we +stand, and ever since I have brooded over our situation, till it seems +as if I shall go mad. There's an awful gulf before us, and every day +we are being pushed nearer to it;" and Laura's large blue eyes were +dilated with horror, as if she saw it. + +"Mother is going to die," she continued, in a tone that chilled +Edith's soul. "Our money will soon be gone; we then shall be driven +away even from this poor shelter, out upon the streets--to New York, +or somewhere. Edith, Oh, Edith, don't you see the gulf? What else is +before us?" + +"Honest work is before me," said Edith, almost fiercely. "I will +compel the world to give me a place entitled at least to respect." + +Laura shook her head despairingly. "You may struggle back and up to +where you are safe. You are good and strong. But there are so many +poor girls in the world like me, who are not good and strong! +Everything seems to combine to push a helpless, friendless woman +toward that gulf. Poor rash, impulsive Zell saw it, and could not +endure the slow, remorseless pressure, as one might be driven over a +precipice, and one she loved seemed to stand ready to break the fall. +I understand her stony, reckless face now." + +"Oh, Laura, hush!" said Edith, desperately. + +"I must speak," she went on, in the same low voice, so full of dread, +"or my brain will burst. I have thought and thought, and seen that +awful gulf grow nearer and nearer, till at times it seemed as if I +should shriek with terror. For two nights I have not slept. Oh! why +were we not taught something better than dressing and dancing, and +those hollow, superficial accomplishments that only mock us now? Why +were not my mind and body developed into something like strength? I +would gladly turn to the coarsest drudgery, if I could only be safe. +But after what has happened no good people will have anything to do +with us, and I am a feeble, helpless creature, that can only shrink +and tremble as I am pushed nearer and nearer." + +Edith seemed turning into stone, herself paralyzed by Laura's despair. +After a moment Laura continued, with a perceptible shudder in her +voice: + +"There is no one to break my fall. Oh, that I was not afraid to die! +That seems the only resource to such as I, If I could just end it all +by becoming nothing--" + +"Laura, Laura," cried Edith, starting up, "cease your wild mad words. +You are sick and morbid. You are more delirious than mother is. We can +get work; there are good people who will take care of us." + +"I have seen nothing that looks like it," said Laura, in the same +despairing tone. "I have read of just such things, and I see how it +all must end." + +"Yes, that's just it," said Edith, impatiently. "You have read so many +wild, unnatural stories of life that you are ready to believe anything +that is horrible. Listen: I have over four hundred dollars in the +bank." + +"How did you get it?" asked Laura, quickly. + +"I have followed mother's suggestion, and mortgaged the place." + +Laura sank into a chair, and became so deathly white that Edith +thought she would faint. At last she gasped: + +"Don't you see? Even you in your strength can't help yourself. You are +being pushed on, too. You said you would not follow mother's advice +again, because it always led to trouble. You said, again and again, +you would not mortgage the place, and yet you have done it. Now it's +all clear. That mortgage will be foreclosed, and then we shall be +turned out, and then--" and she covered her face with her hands. +"Don't you see," she said, in a muffled tone, "the great black hand +reaching out of the darkness and pushing us down and nearer? Oh, that +I wasn't afraid to die!" + +Edith was startled. Even her positive, healthful nature began to yield +to the contagion of Laura's morbid despair. She felt that she must +break the spell and be alone. By a strong effort she tried to speak in +her natural tone and with confidence. She tried to comfort the +desperate woman by endearing epithets, as if she were a child. She +spoke of those simple restoratives which are so often and vainly +prescribed for mortal wounds, sleep and rest. + +"Go to bed, poor child," she urged. "All will look differently in the +sunlight to-morrow." + +But Laura scarcely seemed to heed her. With weak, uncertain steps she +drew near the bed, and turned the light on her mother's thin, flushed +face, and stood, with clasped hands, looking wistfully at her. + +"Yes, my dear," muttered Mrs. Allen in her delirium, "both your father +and myself would give our full approval to your marriage with Mr. +Goulden." The poor woman made watching doubly hard to her daughters, +since she kept recalling to them the happy past in all its minutiae. + +Laura turned to Edith with a smile that was inexpressibly sad, and +said, "What a mockery it all is! There seems nothing real in this +world but pain and danger. Oh, that I was not afraid to die!" + +"Laura, Laura! go to your rest," exclaimed Edith, "or you will lose +your reason. Come;" and she half carried the poor creature to her +room. "Now, leave the door ajar," she said, "for if mother is worse I +will call you." + +Edith sat down to her weary task as a watcher, and never before, in +all the sad preceding weeks, had her heart been so heavy, and so +prophetic of evil, Laura's words kept repeating themselves to her, and +mingling with those of her mother's delirium, thus strangely blending +the past and the present. Could it be true that they were helpless in +the hands of a cruel, remorseless fate, that was pushing them down? +Could it be true that all her struggles and courage would be in vain, +and that each day was only bringing them nearer to the desperation of +utter want? She could not disguise from herself that Laura's dreadful +words had a show of reason, and that, perhaps, the mortgage she had +given that day meant that they would soon be without home or shelter +in the great, pitiless world. But, with set teeth and white face, she +muttered: + +"Death first." + +Then, with a startled expression, she anxiously asked herself: "Was +that what Laura meant when she kept saying, 'Oh, if I wasn't afraid to +die!'" She went to her sister's door and listened. Laura's movements +within seemed to satisfy her, and she returned to the sick-room and +sat down again. Putting her hand upon her heart, she murmured: + +"I am completely unnerved to-night. I don't understand myself;" and +she looked almost as pale and despairing as Laura. + +She was, in truth, in the midst of that "horror of great darkness" +that comes to so many struggling souls in a world upon which the +shadow of sin rests so heavily. + + + + +CHAPTER XXYI + +FRIEND AND SAVIOUR + + + +Knowing of no other source of help than an earthly one, her thoughts +reverted to the old Scotch people whom she had recently visited. Their +sunlighted garden, and happy, homely life, their simple faith, seemed +the best antidote for her present morbid tendencies. + +"If the worst comes to the worst, I think they would take us in for a +little while, till some way opened," she thought. "Oh that I had their +belief in a better life! Then it wouldn't seem so dreadful to suffer +in this one. Why have I never read the 'Gude Book,' as they call it? +But I never seemed to understand it; still, I must say, that I never +really tried to. Perhaps God is angry with us, and is punishing us for +so forgetting Him. I would rather think that than to feel so forgotten +and lost sight of. It seems as if God didn't see or care. It seems as +if I could cling to the harshest father in the world, if he would only +protect and help me. A God of wrath, that I have heard clergymen +preach of, is not so dreadful to me as a God who forgets, and leaves +His creatures to struggle alone. Our minister was so cold and +philosophical, and presented a God that seemed so far off, that I felt +there could never be anything between Him and me. He talked about a +holy, infinite Being, who dwelt alone in unapproachable majesty; and I +want some one to stoop down and love and help poor little me. He +talked about a religion of purity and good works, and love to our +fellow-men. I don't know how to work for myself, much less for others, +and it seems as if nearly all my fellow-creatures hated and scorned +me, and I am afraid of them; so I don't see what chance there is for +such as we. If we had only remained rich, and lived on the avenue, +such a religion wouldn't be so hard. It seems strange that the Bible +should teach him and old Malcom so differently. But I suppose he is +wiser, and understands it better. Perhaps it's the flowers that teach +Malcom, for he always seems drawing lessons from them." + +Then came the impulse to get the Bible and read it for herself. "The +impulse!" whence did it come? + +When Edith felt so orphaned and alone, forgotten even of God, then the +Divine Father was nearest his child. When, in her bitter extremity, at +this lonely midnight hour she realized her need and helplessness as +never before, her great Elder Brother was waiting beside her. + +The impulse was divine. The Spirit of God was leading her as He is +seeking to lead so many. It only remained for her to follow these +gentle impulses, not to be pushed into the black gulf that despairing +Laura dreaded, but to be led into the deep peace of a loving faith. + +She went down into the parlor to get the Bible that in her hands had +revealed the falseness and baseness of Gus Elliot, and the thought +flashed through her mind like a good omen, "This book stood between me +and evil once before." She took it to the light and rapidly turned its +pages, trying to find some clew, some place of hope, for she was sadly +unfamiliar with it. + +Was it her trembling fingers alone that turned the pages? No; He who +inspired the guide she consulted guided her, for soon her eyes fell +upon the sentence-- + +"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest." + +The words came with such vivid power and meaning that she was +startled, and looked around as if some one had spoken to her. They so +perfectly met her need that it seemed they must be addressed directly +to her. + +"Who was it that said these words, and what right had he to say them?" +she queried eagerly, and keeping her finger on the passage as if it +might be a clew out of some fatal labyrinth, she turned the leaves +backward and read more of Him with the breathless interest that some +poor burdened soul might have felt eighteen centuries ago in listening +to a rumor of the great Prophet who had suddenly appeared with signs +and wonders in Palestine. Then she turned and read again and again the +sweet words that first arrested her attention. They seemed more +luminous and hope-inspiring every moment, as their significance dawned +upon her like the coming of day after night. + +Her clear, positive mind could never take a vague, dubious impression +of anything, and with a long-drawn breath she said, with the emphasis +of perfect conviction: + +"If He were a mere man, as I have been taught to believe, He had no +right to say these words. It would be a bitter, wicked mockery for man +or angel to speak them. Oh, can it be that it was God Himself in human +guise? I could trust such a God." + +With glowing cheeks and parted lips, she resumed her reading, and in +her eyes was the growing light of a great hope. + +The upper room of that poor little cottage was becoming a grand and +sacred place. Heaven, that honors the deathless soul above all +localities, was near. The God who was not in the vast and gold- +incrusted temple on Mount Moriah sat in humble guise at "Jacob's +well," and said to one of His poor guilty creatures: "I that speak +unto thee am He." Cathedral domes and cross-tipped spires indicated +the Divine presence on every hand in superstitious Rome, but it would +seem that He was near only to a poor monk creeping up Pilate's +staircase. Though the wealth of the world should combine to build a +colossal church, filling it with every sacred emblem and symbol, and +causing its fretted roof to resound with unceasing choral service, it +would not be such a claim upon the great Father's heart as a weak, +pitiful cry to Him from the least of His children. Though Edith knew +it not, that Presence without which all temples are vain had come to +her as freely, as closely, as truly as when it entered the cottage at +Bethany, and Mary "sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word." Even to +her, in this night of trouble, in this stony wilderness of care and +fear, as to God's trembling servant of old, a ladder of light was let +down from heaven, and on it her faith would climb up to the peace and +rest that are above, and therefore undisturbed by the storms that rage +on earth. + +But it is God's way to make us free through truth. Christ, when on +earth, did not deal with men's souls as with their bodies. The latter +He touched into instantaneous cure; to the former He appealed with +patient instruction and entreaty, revealing Himself by word and deed, +and saying: In view of what I prove myself to be will you trust me? +Will you follow me? + +In words which, though spoken so long ago, are still the living +utterances of the Spirit to every seeking soul, He was now speaking to +Edith, and she listened with the wonder and hope that might have +stirred the heart of some sorrowing maiden like herself, when His +voice was accompanied by the musical chime of waves breaking on the +shores of Galilee, or the rustle of winds through the gray olive +leaves. + +Edith came to the source of all truth with a mind as fresh and +unprejudiced as that of one who saw and heard Jesus for the first +time, as, in his mission journeys, he entered some little town of the +Holy Land. She had never thought much about Him, and had no strong +preconceived opinions. She was almost utterly ignorant of the creeds +and symbols of men, and Christ was not to her, as He is to so many, +the embodiment of a system and the incarnation of a doctrine--a vague, +half-realized truth. When she thought of Him at all, it had been as a +great, good man, the most famous religious teacher in the past, whose +life had nobly "adorned a tale and pointed a moral." But this would +not answer anymore. "What could a man, dead and buried centuries ago, +do for me now?" she asked, bitterly. + +"I want one who can with right speak these words-- + +"'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest.'" + +And as, with finger still clinging to this passage, she read of +miracle and parable, now trembling almost under the "Sermon on the +Mount," now tearful under the tender story of the prodigal, the +feeling came in upon her soul like the rising tide, "This was not mere +man." + +Then, with an awe she had never felt before, she followed him to +Gethsemane, to the High Priest's palace, to Pilate's judgment-hall, +and thence to Golgotha, and it seemed to her one long "Via Dolorosa." +With white lips she murmured, with the centurion, "Truly this man was +the Son of God." + +She was reading the wonderful story for the first time in its true +connection, and the Spirit of God was her guide and teacher. When she +came to Mary "weeping without at the sepulchre," her own eyes were +streaming, and it seemed as if she were weeping there herself. + +But when Jesus said, in a tone perhaps never heard before or since in +this world, "Mary," it seemed that to herself He was speaking, and her +heart responded, "Rabboni--Master." + +She started up and paced the little room, thrilling with excitement. + +"How blind I have been!" she exclaimed--"how utterly blind! Here I +have been struggling alone all these weary weeks, with scarcely hope +for this world and none for the next, when I might have had _such_ a +friend and helper all the time. Can I be deceived? Can this sweet way +of light out of our thick darkness be a delusion?" + +She went to where her little Bible lay open at the passage, "Come unto +me," and bowing her head upon it, pleaded as simply and sincerely as +the Syro-Phoenician mother pleaded for her child in the very presence +of the human Saviour-- + +"O Jesus, I am heavily laden. I labor under burdens greater than I can +bear. Divine Saviour, help me." + +In answer she expected some vague exaltation of soul, of an exquisite +sense of peace, as the burden was rolled away. + +There was nothing of the kind, but only an impulse to go to Laura. She +was deeply disappointed. She seemed to have climbed such a lofty +height that she might almost look into heaven and confirm her faith +forever, and only a simple earthly duty was revealed to her. Her +excited mind, that had been expanding with the divinest mysteries, was +reacting into quietness, and the impression was so strong that she +must go to Laura, that she thought her sister had been calling her, +and she, in her intense preoccupation, had heard her as in a dream. + +Still keeping the little Bible in her hand, she went to Laura's room. +Through the partially open door she saw, with a sudden chill of fear, +that the bed had not been slept in. Pushing the door open, she looked +eagerly around with a strange dread growing upon her. Laura was +writing at a table with her back toward the entrance. There was a +strong odor of laudanum in the room, and a horrible thought blanched +Edith's cheek. Stealing with noiseless tread across the intervening +space, with hand pressed upon her heart to still its wild throbbings, +she looked over her sister's shoulder, and followed the tracings of +her pen with dilating eyes. + +"Mother, Edith, farewell! When you read these sad words I shall be +dead. I fear death--I cannot tell you how I fear it, but I fear more +that dreadful gulf which daily grows nearer. I must die. There is no +other resource for a poor, weak woman like me. If I were only strong-- +if I had only been taught something--but I am helpless. Do not be too +hard upon poor little Zell. Her eyes were blinded by a false love; she +did not see the black gulf as I see it. If God cares for what such +poor forlorn creatures as I do, may He forgive. I have thought till my +brain reels. I have tried to pray, but hardly knew what I was praying +to. I don't understand God--He is far off. The world scorns us. There +is none to help. There is no other remedy save the drug at my side, +which will soon bring sleep which I hope will be dreamless. Farewell! + +"Your poor, trembling, despairing LAURA." + +Every sentence was written with a sigh that seemed as if it might be +the last that the burdened soul could, give, and every line was +blotted with tears. Edith saw that the poor, thin face was pinched and +wan with misery, and that the pallor of death had already blanched +even her lips, and, with a shudder of horror, her eyes fell on a phial +of laudanum at Laura's left hand, from which she was partially turned +away, in the act of writing. + +With an ecstatic thrill of joy, she now understood how her prayer had +been answered. How could there have been rest--how could there have +been peace--if this awful tragedy had been consummated? + +With one devout, grateful glance upward, she silently took away the +fatal drug, and laid her Bible down in its place. + +Laura finished her letter, leaned back, and murmured a long, +trembling, "Farewell!" that was like a low, mournful vibration of an +Aeolian harp, when the night-breeze breathes upon it. Then she pressed +her right hand over her eyes, shuddered, and tremblingly put out her +left for that which would end all. But, instead of the phial which she +had placed there but a little before, her hand rested upon a book. +Startled, she opened her eyes, and saw not the dreaded poison, but in +golden letters that seemed luminous to her dazzled sight: + +HOLY BIBLE. + +Though all had lasted but a brief moment, Edith's power of self- +control was gone. Dashing the bottle on the floor, where it broke into +many fragments, she threw herself on her sister's neck and sobbed: + +"O Laura, Laura! your hand is on a better remedy. It has saved me--it +can save you. It has shown me the Friend we need. He sent me to you;" +and she clung to her sister in a rapture of joy, murmuring, with every +breath: + +"Thanks, thanks, eternal gratitude! I see how my prayer is answered +now." + +Laura, in her shattered condition, was too bewildered and feeble to do +more than cling to Edith, with a blessed sense of being rescued from +some great peril. A horrid spell seemed broken, and for some reason, +she knew not why, life and hope were still possible. A torrent of +tears seemed to relieve her of the dreadful oppression that had so +long rested on her, and at last she faltered: + +"Who is this strange friend?" + +"His name is Jesus--Saviour," said Edith, in a low, reverential tone. + +"I don't quite understand," said Laura, hesitatingly. "I can only +cling to you till I know Him." + +"He knows you, Laura, and loves you. He has never forgotten us. It was +we who forgot Him. He sent me to you, just in time. Now put your hand +on this book, and promise me you will never think of such an awful +thing again." + +"I promise," said Laura, solemnly; "not if I am in my right mind. I +don't understand myself. You seem to have awakened me from a fearful +dream. I will do just what you tell me to." + +"Oh, Laura, let us both try to do just what our Divine Friend tells us +to do." + +"Perhaps, through you, I shall learn to know Him. I can only cling to +you to-night," said Laura, wearily, "I am so tired," and her eyes +drooped as she spoke. + +With a sense of security came a strong reaction in her overtaxed +nature. Edith helped her to bed as if she were a child, and soon she +was sleeping as peacefully as one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE MYSTERY SOLVED + + + +Edith resumed her watching in her mother's room. The invalid was still +dwelling on the past, and her delirium appeared to Edith a true emblem +of her old, unreal life. Indeed, it seemed to her that she had never +lived before. A quiet but divine exaltation filled her soul. She did +not care to read any more, but just sat still and thought, and her +spiritual light grew clearer and clearer. + +Her faith was very simple, her knowledge very slight. She was scarcely +in advance of a Hebrew maiden who might have been one of the mournful +procession passing out of the gates of Nain, when a Stranger, unknown +before, revealed Himself by turning death into life, sorrow into joy. +The eye of her faith was fastened on the distinct, living, loving +personality of our human yet Divine Friend, who no longer seemed afar +off, but as near as to that other burdened one who touched the hem of +His garment. + +"He does not change, the Bible says," she thought. "He cannot change. +Therefore He will help me, just as surely as He did the poor, +suffering people among whom He lived." + +It was but three o'clock, and yet the eastern sky was pale with dawn. +At length her attention was gained by a faint but oft-repeated sound. +It seemed to come from the direction of the garden, and at once the +mystery that so oppressed poor Hannibal occurred to her. She rose, and +passed back to her own room, which overlooked the garden, and, through +the lattice, in the faint morning twilight, saw a tall, dusky figure, +that looked much too substantial to be any such shadowy being as the +old negro surmised, and the strokes of his hoe were too vigorous and +noisy for ghostly gardening. + +"It must be Arden Lacey," thought Edith, "but I will put this matter +beyond all doubt. I don't like this night work, either; though for +different reasons than those of poor Hannibal. We have suffered enough +from scandal already, and henceforth all connected with my life shall +be as open as the day. Then, if the world believes evil of me, it will +be because it likes it best." + +These thoughts passed through her mind while she hastily threw off her +wrapper and dressed. Cautiously opening the back-door, she looked +again. The nearer view and clearer light revealed to her Arden Lacey. +She did not fear him, and at once determined to question him as to the +motive of his action. He was but a little way off, and was tying up a +grape-vine that had been neglected, his back being toward her. Edith +had great physical courage and firmness naturally, and it seemed that +on this morning she could fear nothing, in the strength of her new- +born enthusiasm. + +With noiseless step she reached his side, and asked, almost sternly: + +"Who are you, sir; and what does this action mean?" + +Arden started violently, trembled like the leaves in the morning wind, +and turned slowly toward her, feeling more guilty and alarmed than if +he had been playing the part of a burglar, instead of acting as her +good genius. + +"Why don't you answer?" she asked, in still more decided tones. "By +what right are you doing this work?" + +Edith had lost faith in men. She knew little of Arden, and the thought +flashed through her mind, "This may be some new plot against us." +Therefore her manner was stern and almost threatening. + +Poor Aden was startled out of all self-control, Edith's coming was so +sudden and unexpected, and her pale face was so spirit-like, that for +a moment he scarcely knew whether the constant object of his thoughts +was really before him, or whether his strong imagination was only +mocking him. + +Edith mistook his agitation and hesitancy as evidences of guilt, and +he so far recovered himself as to recognize her suspicions. + +"I will be answered. You shall speak the truth," she said, +imperiously. "By what right are you doing this work?" + +Then his own proud, passionate spirit flamed up, and looking her +unblenchingly in the face, he replied: + +"The right of my great love for you. Can I not serve my idol?" + +An expression of deep pain and repulsion came out upon Edith's face, +and he saw it. The avowal of his love was so abrupt--indeed it was +almost stern; and, coming thus from quite a stranger, who had little +place even in her thoughts, it was so exceedingly painful that it was +like a blow. And yet she hardly knew how to answer him, for she saw in +his open, manly face, his respectful manner, that he meant no evil, +however he might err through ignorance or feeling. + +He seemed to wait for her to speak again, and his face, from being +like the eastern sky, became very pale. From recent experience, and +the teachings of the Patient One, Edith's heart was very tender toward +anything that looked like suffering, and though she deemed Arden's +feeling but the infatuation of a rude and ill-regulated mind, she +could not be harsh, now that all suspicion of evil designs was +banished. Therefore she said quietly, and almost kindly: + +"You have done wrong, Mr. Lacey. Remember I have no father or brother +to protect me. The world is too ready to take up evil reports, and +your strange action might be misunderstood. All transactions with me +must be like the sunlight." + +With an expression of almost anguish, Arden bowed his head before her, +and groaned: + +"Forgive me; I did not think." + +"I am sure you meant no harm," said Edith, with real kindness now in +her tone. "You would not knowingly make the way harder for a poor girl +that has too much already to struggle against. And now, good-by. I +shall trust to your sense of honor, assured that you will treat me as +you would wish your own sister dealt with;" and she vanished, leaving +Arden so overwhelmed with contending emotions that he could scarcely +make his way home. + +An hour later Edith heard Hannibal's step downstairs, and she at once +joined him. The old man had aged in a night, and his face had a more +worn and hopeless look than had yet rested upon it. He trembled at the +rustle of her dress, and called: + +"Miss Edie, am dat you?" + +"Yes, you foolish old fellow. I have seen your spook, and ordered it +not to come here again unless I send you for it." + +"Oh, Miss Edie!" gasped Hannibal. + +"It's Arden Lacey." + +Hannibal collapsed. He seemed to drop out of the realm of the +supernatural to the solid ground of fact with a heavy thump. + +He sank into a chair, regarding her first with a blank, vacant face, +which gradually became illumined with a knowing grin. In a low, +chuckling voice, he said: + +"I jes declar to you I'se struck all of a heap. I jes done see whar de +possum is dis minute. What an ole black fool I was, sure 'nuff. I +tho't he'se de mos 'bligin man I eber seed afore," and he told her how +Arden had served her in her illness. + +She was divided between amusement and annoyance, the latter +predominating. Hannibal concluded impressively: + +"Miss Edie, it must be lub. Nothin' else dan dat which so limbered up +my ole jints could get any livin' man ober as much ground as he hoed +dat night." + +"Hush, Hannibal," said Edith, with dignity; "and remember that this is +a secret between ourselves. Moreover, I wish you never to ask Mr. +Lacey to do anything for us if it can possibly be helped, and never +without my knowledge." + +"You knows well, Miss Edie, dat you'se only to speak and it's done," +said Hannibal, deprecatingly. + +She gave him such a gentle, grateful look that the old man was almost +ready to get down on his knees before her. Putting her hand on his +shoulder, she said: + +"What a good, faithful, old friend you are! You don't know how much I +love you, Hannibal;" and she returned to her mother. + +Hannibal rolled up his eyes and clasped his hands, as if before his +patron saint, saying, under his breath: + +"De idee of her lubing ole black Hannibal! I could die dis blessed +minute," which was his way of saying, "_Nunc dimittis_." + +Laura slept quietly till late in the afternoon, and wakened as if to a +new and better life. Her manner was almost child-like. She had lost +all confidence in herself, and seemed to wish to be controlled by +Edith in all things, as a little child might be. But she was very +feeble. + +As the morning advanced Edith grew exceedingly weary. Reaction from +her strong excitement seemed to bear her down in a weakness and +lethargy that she could not resist, and by ten o'clock she felt that +she must have some relief. It came from an unexpected source, for +Hannibal appeared with a face of portentous solemnity, saying that +Mrs. Lacey was downstairs, and that she wished to know if she could do +something to help. + +The mother's quick eye saw that something had deeply moved and was +troubling her son. Indeed, for some time past, she had seen that into +his unreal world had come a reality that was a source of both pain and +pleasure, of fear and hope. While she followed him every hour of the +day with an unutterable sympathy, she silently left him to open his +heart to her in his own time and manner. But her tender, wistful +manner told Arden that he was understood, and he preferred this tacit +sympathy to any spoken words. But this morning the evidence of his +mental distress was so apparent that she went to him, placed her hands +upon his shoulders, and with her grave, earnest eyes looking straight +into his, asked: + +"Arden, what can I do for you?" + +"Mother," he said, in a low tone, "there are sickness and deep trouble +at our neighbors'. Will you go to them again?" + +"Yes, my son," she replied, simply, "as soon as I can get ready." + +So she arranged matters to stay if needed, and thus in Edith's +extremity she appeared. In view of Arden's words, Edith hardly knew +how to receive her or what to do. But when she saw the plain, grave +woman sitting before her in the simple dignity of patient sorrow, her +course seemed clear. She instinctively felt that she could trust this +offered friendliness, and that she needed it. + +"I have heard that your mother has been sick as well as yourself," +Mrs. Lacey said kindly but quietly. "You look very worn and weary, +Miss Allen; and if I, as a neighbor, can watch in your place for a +while, I think you can trust me to do so." + +Tears sprang into Edith's eyes, and she said, with sudden color coming +into her pale face, "You take noble revenge for the treatment you have +received from us, and I gratefully submit to it. I must confess I have +reached the limit of my endurance; my sister is ill also, and yet +mother needs constant attention." + +"Then I am very glad I came, and I have left things at home so I can +stay," and she laid aside her wraps with the air of one who sees a +duty plainly and intends to perform it. Edith gave her the doctor's +instructions a little incoherently in her utter exhaustion, but the +experienced matron understood all, and said: + +"I think I know just what to do. Sleep till you are well rested." + +Edith went to her room, and, with her face where the sweet June air +could breathe directly upon it through the open window, sleep came +with a welcome and refreshing balm that she had never known before. +Her last thought was, "He will take care of me and mine." + +She had left the door leading into the sick-room open, and Mrs. Lacey +stepped in once and looked at her. The happy, trustful thought with +which she had closed her eyes had left a faint smile upon her face, +and given it a sweet spiritual beauty. + +"She seems very different from what I supposed," murmured Mrs. Lacey. +"She is very different from what people are imagining her. Perhaps +Arden, poor boy, is nearer right than all of us. Oh, I hope she is +good, whether he ever marries her or not, for this love will be the +saving or ruining of him." + +When Edith awoke it was dark, and she started up in dismay, for she +had meant to sleep but an hour or two. Having hastily smoothed her +hair, she went to the sick-room, and found Laura reclining on the +sofa, and talking in the most friendly manner to Mrs. Lacey. Her +mother's delirium continued, though it was more quiet, with snatches +of sleep intervening, but she noticed no one as yet. Mrs. Lacey sat +calmly in her chair, her sad, patient face making the very ideal of a +watcher, and yet in spite of her plain exterior there was a +refinement, an air of self-respect, that would impress the most casual +observer. As soon as Laura saw Edith she rose as quickly as her +feebleness permitted, and threw her arms around her sister, and there +was an embrace whose warmth and meaning none but themselves, and the +pitying eye of Him who saved, could understand. Then Edith turned and +said, earnestly: + +"Truly, Mrs. Lacey, I did not intend to trespass on your kindness in +this manner. I hope you will forgive me." + +Nature knew what was best for you, Miss Allen, and have not incommoded +me at all. I made my plans to stay till nine o'clock, and then Arden +will come for me." + +"Miss Edie," said Hannibal, in his loud whisper, "I'se got some supper +for you down here." + +Why did Edith go to her room and make a little better toilet before +going down? She hardly thought herself. It was probably a feminine +instinct. As she took her last sip of tea there was a timid knock at +the door. "I will see him a moment," she decided. + +Hannibal, with a gravity that made poor Edith smile in her thoughts, +admitted Arden Lacey. He was diffident but not awkward, and the color +deepened in his face, then left it very pale, as he saw Edith was +present. Her pale cheek also took the faintest tinge of pink, but she +rose quietly, and said: + +"Please be seated, Mr. Lacey. I will tell your mother you are here." +Then, as Hannibal disappeared, she added earnestly, "I do appreciate +your mother's kindness, and--yours also. At the same time, too deep a +sense of obligation is painful; you must not do so much for us. Please +do not misunderstand me." + +Arden had something of his mother's quiet dignity, as he rose and held +out to Edith a letter, saying: + +"Will you please read that--you need not answer it--and then perhaps +you will understand me better." + +Edith hesitated, and was reluctant. + +"I may be doing wrong," continued he, earnestly and with rising color. +"I am not versed in the world's ways; but is it not my right to +explain the rash words I uttered this morning? My good name is dear to +me also. Few care for it, but I would not have it utterly blurred in +your eyes. We may be strangers after you have read it, if you choose, +but I entreat you to read it." + +"You will not feel hurt if I afterward return it to you?" asked Edith, +timidly. + +"You may do with it what you please." + +She then took the letter, and a moment later Mrs. Lacey appeared, and +said: + +"I will sit up to-morrow night, with your permission." + +Edith took her hand, and replied, "Mrs. Lacey, you burden me with +kindness." + +"It is not my wish to burden, but to relieve you, Miss Allen. I think +I can safely say, from our slight acquaintance, that in the case of +sickness or trouble at a neighbor's, you would not spare yourself. We +cease to be human when we leave the too heavily burdened to struggle +alone." + +Edith's eyes grew moist, and she said, simply, "I cannot refuse +kindness offered in that spirit, and may God bless you for it. Good- +night." + +Arden's only parting was a grave, silent bow. + +Edith was soon alone again, watching by her mother. With some natural +curiosity, she opened the letter that was written by one so different +from any man that she had ever known before. Its opening, at least, +was reassuring. + +"MISS EDITH ALLEN--You need not fear that I shall offend again by +either writing or speaking such rash words as those which so deeply +pained you this morning. They would not have been spoken then, perhaps +never, had I not been startled out of my self-control--had I not seen +that you suspected me of evil. I was very unwise, and I sincerely ask +your pardon. But I meant no wrong, and as you referred to my sister, I +can say, before God, that I would shield you as I would shield her. + +"I know little of the conventionalities of the world. I live but a +hermit's life in it, and my letter may seem to you very foolish and +romantic, still I know that my motives are not ignoble, and with this +consciousness I venture. + +"Reverencing and honoring you as I do, I cannot bear that you should +think too meanly of me. The world regards me as a sullen, stolid, +bearish creature, but I have almost ceased to care for its opinion. I +have received from it nothing but coldness and scorn, and I pay my +debt in like coin. But perhaps you can imagine why I cannot endure +that you should regard me in like manner. I would not have you think +my nature a stony, sterile place, when something tells me that it is +like a garden that needs only sunlight of some kind. My life has been +blighted by the wrong of another, who should have been my best helper. +The knowledge and university culture for which I thirsted were denied +me. And yet, believe me, only my mother's need--only the absolute +necessity that she and my sister should have a daily protector--kept +me from pushing out into the word, and trying to work my way unaided +to better things. Sacred duty has chained me down to a life that was +outwardly most sordid and unhappy. My best solace has been my mother's +love. But from varied, somewhat extensive, though perhaps not the +wisest kind of reading, I came to dwell in a brave, beautiful, but +shadowy world that I created out of books. I was becoming satisfied +with it, not knowing any other. The real world mocked and hurt me on +every side. It is so harsh and unjust that I hate it. I hate it +infinitely more as I see its disposition to wound you, who have been +so noble and heroic. In this dream of the past--in this unreal world +of my own fancy--I was living when you came that rainy night. As I +learned to know you somewhat, you seemed a beautiful revelation to me. +I did not think there was such a woman in existence. My shadows +vanished before you. With you living in the present, my dreams of the +past ceased. I could not prevent your image from entering my lonely, +empty heart, and taking its vacant throne, as if by divine right. How +could I? How can I drive you forth now, when my whole being is +enslaved? + +"But forgive me. Though thought and feeling are beyond control, +outward action is not. I hope never to lose a mastering grasp on the +rein of deeds and words; and though I cannot understand how the +feeling I have frankly avowed can ever change, I will try never, by +look or sign, to pain you with it again. + +"And yet, with a diffidence and fear equalled only by my sincerity and +earnestness, I would venture to ask one great favor. You said this +morning that you already had too much to struggle against. The future +has its possibilities of further trouble and danger. + +"Will you not let me be your humble, faithful friend, serving you +loyally, devotedly, yet unobtrusively, and with all the delicate +regard for your position which I am capable of showing, assured that +I will gratefully accept any hints when I am wrong or presumptuous? +I would gladly serve you with your knowledge and consent. But serve +you I must. I vowed it the night I lifted your unconscious form from +the wharf, and gave you into Mrs. Groody's care. There need be no +reply. You have only to treat me not as an utter stranger when we next +meet. You have only to give me the joy of doing something for you when +opportunity offers. + +"ARDEN LACEY." + +Edith's eyes filled with tears before she finished this most +unexpected epistle. Though rather quaint and stately in its diction, +the passion of a true, strong nature so permeated it all, that the +coldest and shallowest would have been moved. And yet a half-smile +played upon her face at the same time, like sunlight on drops of rain. + +"Thank heaven!" she said, "I know of one more true man in the world, +if he is a strange one. How different he is from what I thought! I +don't believe there's another in this place who could have written +such a letter. What would a New York society man, whose compliments +are as extravagant as meaningless, think of it? Truly he doesn't know +the world, and isn't like it. I supposed him an awkward, eccentric +young countryman, that, from his very verdancy, would be difficult to +manage, and he writes to me like a knight of olden time, only such +language seems Quixotic in our day. The foolish fellow, to idealize +poor, despised, faulty Edith Allen into one of the grand heroines of +his interminable romances, and that after seeing me hoe my garden like +a Dutch woman. If I wasn't so sad and he so earnest, I could laugh +till my sides ached. There never was a more matter-of-fact creature +than I am, and yet here am I enveloped in a halo of impossible virtues +and graces. If I were what he thinks me, I shouldn't know myself. +Well, well, I must treat him somewhat like a boy, for such he really +is, ignorant of himself and all the world. When he comes to know me +better, the Edith of his imagination will vanish like his other +shadows, and he will have another revelation that I am an ordinary, +flesh-and-blood girl." + +With deepening color she continued: "So it was he who lifted me up +that night. Well, I am glad it was one who pitied me, and not some +coarse, unfeeling man. It seems strange how circumstances have brought +him who shuns and is shunned by all, into such a queer relationship to +me. But heaven forbid that I should give him lessons as to the +selfish, matter-of-fact world. He will outgrow his morbidness and +romantic chivalry with the certainty of years, and seeing more of me +will banish his absurd delusions in regard to me. I need his +friendship and help--indeed it seems as if they were sent to me. It +can do him no harm, and it may give me a chance to do him good. If any +man ever needed a sensible friend, he does." + +Therefore Edith wrote him-- + +"It is very kind of you to offer friendship and help to one situated +like myself, and I gratefully grant what you rather oddly call 'a +favor.' At the same time, if you ever find such friendliness a pain or +trouble to you in any way, I shall in no degree blame you for +withdrawing it." + +The "friendship" and "friendliness" were underscored, thus delicately +hinting that this must be the only relation. + +"There," she said, "all his chains will now be of his own forging, and +I shall soon demolish the paragon he is dreaming over." + +She laid both letters aside, and took down her Bible with a little +sigh of satisfaction. + +"His lonely, empty heart," she murmured; "ah, that is the trouble with +all. He thinks to fill his with a vain dream of me, as others do with +as vain a dream of something else. I trust I have learned of One here +who can fill and satisfy mine;" and soon she was again deep in the +wondrous story, so old, so new, so all-absorbing to those from whose +spiritual eyes the scales of doubt and indifference have fallen. As +she read she saw, not truths about Jesus, but _Him_, and at His feet +her heart bowed in stronger faith and deeper love every moment. + +She had not even thought whether she was a Christian or not. She had +not even once put her finger on her spiritual pulse, to gauge the +evidences of her faith. A system of theology would have been +unintelligible to her. She could not have defined one doctrine so as +to have satisfied a sound divine. She had not even read the greater +part of the Bible, but, in her bitter extremity, the Spirit of God, +employing the inspired guide, had brought her to Jesus, as the +troubled and sinful were brought to Him of old. He had given her rest. +He had helped her save her sister, and with childlike confidence she +was just looking, lovingly and trustingly, into His divine face, and +He was smiling away all her fear and pain. She seemed to feel sure +that her mother would get well, that Laura would grow stronger, that +they would all learn to know Him, and would be taken care of. + +As she read this evening she came to that passage of exquisite pathos, +where the purest, holiest manhood said to "a woman of the city, which +was a sinner," + +"Thy sins are forgiven. Go in peace." + +Instantly her thoughts reverted to Zell, and she was deeply moved. +Could she be forgiven? Could she be saved? Was the God of the Bible-- +stern, afar off, as she had once imagined--more tender toward the +erring than even their own human kindred? Could it be possible that, +while she had been condemning, and almost hating Zell, Jesus had been +loving her? + +The feeling overpowered her. Closing the book, she leaned her head +upon it, and, for the first time, sobbed and mourned for Zell with a +great, yearning pity. + +Every such pitiful tear, the world over, is a prayer to God. It +mingles with those that flowed from His eyes as He wept over the +doomed city that would not receive Him. It mingles with that crimson +tide which flowed from His hands and feet when He prayed-- + +"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +EDITH TELLS THE OLD, OLD STORY + + + +Mrs. Allen seemed better the next day, and Laura was able to watch +while Edith slept. After tea Mrs. Lacey appeared, with the same +subdued air of quiet self-respect and patient sorrow. She seemed to +have settled down into that mournful calm which hopes little and fears +little. She seemed to expect nothing better than to go forward, with, +such endurance as she might, into the deeper shadows of age, sickness, +and death. She vaguely hoped that God would have mercy upon her at +last, but how to love and trust Him she did not know. She hardly knew +that it was expected, or possible. She associated religion with going +to church, outward profession, and doing much good. The neighbors +spoke of her and the family as "very irreligious," and she had about +come to the conclusion that they were right. She never thought of +taking credit to herself for her devotion to her children and patience +with her husband. She loved the former, especially her son, with an +intensity that one could hardly reconcile with her grave and silent +ways. In regard to her husband, she tried to remember her first young +girlish dream--the manly ideal of character that her fond heart had +associated with the handsome young fellow who had singled her out +among the many envious maidens in her native village. + +"I will try to be true to what I thought he was," she said, with +woman's pathetic constancy, "and be patient with what he is." + +But the disappointment, as it slowly assumed dread certainty, broke +her heart. + +Edith began to have a fellow-feeling for her. "We both have not only +our own burdens to carry, but the heavier burden of another," she +thought. "I wonder if she has ever gone to Him for the 'rest.' I fear +not, or she would not look so sad and hopeless." + +Before they could go upstairs a hack from the hotel stopped at the +door, and Mrs. Groody bustled cheerily in. Laura at the same time came +down, saying that Mrs. Allen was asleep. + +"Hannibal," said Edith, "you may sit on the stairs, and if she wakes, +or makes any sound, let me know," and she took a seat near the door in +order to hear. + +"I've been worryin' about you every minute ever since I called, and +you was too sick to see me," said Mrs. Groody, "but I've been so busy +I couldn't get away. It takes an awful lot of work to get such a big +house to rights, and the women cleanin', and the servants are so +aggravating that I am just run off my legs lookin' after them. I don't +see why people can't do what they're told, when they're told." + +"I wish I were able to help you," said Edith. "Your promise of work +has kept me up wonderfully. But before I half got my strength back +mother became very ill, and, had it not been for Mrs. Lacey, I don't +know what I should have done. It did seem as if she were sent here +yesterday, for I could not have kept up another hour." + +"You poor child," said Mrs. Groody, in a tone and manner overflowing +with motherly kindness. "I just heard about it today from Arden, who +was bringin' something up to the hotel, so I said, 'I'll drop +everything to-night, and run down for a while.' So here I am, and now +what can I do for you?" concluded the warm-hearted woman, whose +invariable instinct was to put her sympathy into deeds. + +"I told you that night," said Edith. "I think I could do a little +sewing or mending even now if I had it here at home. But your kindness +and remembrance do me more good than any words of mine can tell you. I +thought no one would ever speak to us again," she continued in a low +tone, and with rising color, "and I have had kind, helpful friends +sent to me already." + +Wistful mother-love shone in Mrs. Lacey's large blue eyes, but Mrs. +Groody blew her nose like a trumpet, and said: + +"Not speak to you, poor child! Though I ain't on very good terms with +the Lord, I ain't a Pharisee, and after what I saw of you that night, +I am proud to speak to you and do anything I can for you. It does seem +too bad that poor young things like you two should be so burdened. I +should think you had enough before without your mother gettin' sick. I +don't understand the Lord, nohow. Seems to me He might scatter His +afflictions as well as His favors a little more evenly, I've thought a +good deal about what you said that night, 'We're dealt with in +masses,' and poor bodies like you and me, and Mrs. Lacey there, that +is, 'the human atoms,' as you called 'em, are lost sight of." + +Tears sprang into Edith's eyes, and she said, earnestly, "I am sorry I +ever said those words. They are not true. I should grieve very much if +my rash, desperate words did you harm after all your kindness to me. I +have learned better since I saw you, Mrs. Groody. We are not lost +sight of. It seems to me the trouble is we lose sight of Him." + +"Well, well, child, I'm glad to hear you talk in that way," said Mrs. +Groody, despondently. "I'm dreadfully discouraged about it all. I know +I fell from grace, though, one awfully hot summer, when everything +went wrong, and I got on a regular rampage, and that's the reason +perhaps. A she-bear that had lost her cubs wasn't nothin' to me. But I +straightened things out at the hotel, though I came mighty near bein' +sick, but I never could get straight myself after it. I knowed I ought +to be more patient-I knowed it all the time. But human natur is human +natur, and woman natur is worse yet sometimes. And when you've got on +one hand a score to two of drinkin,' quarrelsome, thievin', and +abominably lazy servants to manage, and on the other two or three +hundred fastidious people to please, and elegantly dressed ladies who +can't manage their three or four servants at home, dawdlin' up to you +every hour in the day, say in' about the same as, Mrs. Groody, +everything ain't done in a minute--everything ain't just right. I'd +like to know where 'tis in this jumbled-up world--not where they're +housekeepers, I warrant you. + +"Well, as I was telling you," continued Mrs. Groody, with a weary +sigh, "that summer was too much for me. I got to be a very dragon. I +hadn't time to read my Bible, or pray, or go to church, or scarcely +eat or sleep. I worked Sundays and week days alike, and I got to be a +sort of heathen, and I've been one ever since," and a gloom seemed to +gather on her naturally open, cheery face, as if she feared she might +never be anything else. + +Mrs. Lacey gave a deep, responsive sigh, showing that her heavy heart +was akin to all other burdened souls. But direct, practical Edith said +simply and gently: + +"In other words, you were laboring and heavy laden." + +"Couldn't have been more so, and lived," was Mrs. Groody's emphatic +answer. + +"And the memory of it seems to have been a heavy burden on your +conscience ever since, though I think you judge yourself harshly," +continued Edith. + +"Not a bit," said Mrs. Groody sturdily, "I knowed better all the +time." + +"Well, be that as it may, I feel that I know very little about these +things yet. I'm sure I want to be guided rightly. But what did our +Lord mean when He said, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest'?" + +Mrs. Groody gave Edith a sort of surprised and startled look. After a +moment she said, "Bless you, child, how plain you do put it! It's a +very plain text when you think of it, now, ain't it? I always tho't it +meant kind o' good, as all the Bible does." + +"No, but He said them," urged Edith, earnestly. "It is a distinct, +plain invitation, and it must have a distinct, plain meaning. I have +learned to know that when you or Mrs. Lacey say a thing, you mean what +you say, and so it is with all who are sincere and true. Was He not +sincere and true? If so, these plain words must have a plain meaning. +He surely couldn't have meant them only for the few people who heard +His voice at that time." + +"Of course not," said Mrs. Groody, musingly, while poor Mrs. Lacey +leaned forward with such an eager, hungry look in her poor, worn face, +that Edith's heart yearned over her. Laura came and sat on the floor +by her sister's chair, and leaning her elbow on Edith's knee, and her +face on her hand, looked up with the wistful, trustful, child-like +expression that had taken the place of her former stateliness and +subsequent apathy. Edith lost all thought of herself in her eagerness +to tell the others of the Friend and Helper she had come to know. + +"He must be God, or else He had no right to say to a great, troubled, +sinning world, 'Come unto me.' The idea of a million people going at +once, with their sorrows and burdens, to one mere man, or an angel, or +any finite creature! And just think how many millions there are! If +the Bible is for all, this invitation is for all. He couldn't have +changed since then, could He? He can't be different in heaven from +what He was on earth?" + +"No," said Mrs. Groody, quickly, "for the Bible says He is the same +yesterday, to-day, and forever.'" + +"I never read in that place," said Edith, simply. "That makes it +clearer and stronger than ever. Please, don't think I am setting +myself up as a religious teacher. I know very little yet myself. I am +only seeking the light. But one thing is settled in my mind, and I +like to have one thing settled before I go on to anything else. This +one thing seems the foundation of everything else, and it appears as +if I could go on from it and learn all the rest. I am satisfied that +this Jesus is God, and that He said, 'Come unto me,' to poor, weak, +overburdened Edith Allen. I went to Him, just as people in trouble +used to, when He first spoke these words. And oh, how He has helped +me!" continued Edith, with tears in her eyes, but with the glad light +of a great hope again shining through them. "The world can never know +all that He has done for us, and I can't even think of Him without my +heart quivering with gratitude." + +Laura had now buried her face in her sister's lap, and was trembling +like a leaf. Edith's words had a meaning to her that they could not +have for the others. + +"And now," concluded Edith, "I was led to Him by these words, 'Come +unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you +rest.' I was in greater darkness than I had ever been in before. My +heart ached as if it would burst. Difficulty and danger seemed on +every side, and I saw no way out. I knew the world had only scorn for +us, and I was so bowed down with shame and discouragement that I +almost lost all hope. I had been to the village, and the people looked +and pointed at me, till I was ready to drop in the street. But I went +to Mr. McTrump's, and he and his wife were so kind to me, and +heartened me up a little; and they spoke about the 'Gude Book,' as +they call it, in such a way as made me think of it in my deep distress +and fear, as I sat alone watching with mother. So I found my neglected +Bible, and, in some way, I seemed guided to these words, 'Come unto +me'; and then, for two or three hours, I continued to read eagerly +about Him, till at last I felt that I could venture to go to Him. So, +I just bowed my head, on His own invitation; indeed, it seemed like a +tender call to a child that had been lost in the dark, and was afraid, +and I said, 'I am heavy laden, help me.' And how wonderfully He did +help me! He has been so good, so near, ever since. My weary, hopeless +heartache is gone. I don't know what is before us. I can't see the way +out of our troubles. I don't know what has become of our absent one," +she said, in a low tone and with bowed head, "but I can leave all to +Him. He is God: He loves, and He can and will take care of us. So you +see I know very little about religion yet; just enough to trust and +keep close to Him; and I feel sure that in time He will teach me, +through the Bible, or in some way, all I ought to know." + +"Bless the child, she's right, she's right," sobbed Mrs. Groody. "It +was just so at first. He came right among people, and called all sorts +to Him, and they came to Him just as they was, and stayed with Him, +and He cured, and helped, and taught 'em, till, from being the worst, +they became the best. That is the way that distressed, swearin', old +fisherman Peter became one of the greatest and best men that ever +lived; though it took a mighty lot of grace and patience to bring it +about. Now I think of it, I think he fell from grace worse than I did +that awfully hot summer. What an old fool I am! I've been readin' the +Bible all my life, and never understood it before." + +"I think that if you had gone to Him that time when you were so +troubled and overburdened He would have helped you," said Edith, +gently. + +"Yes, but there it is, you see," said Mrs. Groody, wiping her eyes and +shaking her head despondently; "I didn't go." + +"But you are heavy laden now. I can see it. You can go now," said +Edith, earnestly. + +"I'm afraid I've put it off too long," said Mrs. Groody, settling back +into something of her old gloom. "I'm afraid I've sinned away my +time." + +With a strange blending of pathos and reproach in her tone, Edith +answered: + +"Oh, how can YOU, with your big, kind heart, that yearned over a poor +unknown girl that dreadful night when you brought me home--how can you +think so poorly of your Saviour? Is your heart warmer--are your +sympathies larger than His? Why, He died for us, and, when dying, +prayed for those who crucified Him. Could you turn away a poor, +sorrowing, burdened creature that came pleading to you for help? You +know you couldn't. Learn from your own heart something of His. Listen, +I haven't told you all. It seems as if I never could tell all about +Him. But see how He feels about poor lost Zell, when I, her own +sister, was almost hating her," and, reaching her hand to the table, +she took her Bible and read Christ's words to "a woman of the city, +which was a sinner." + +At this Mrs. Groody broke down completely, and with clasped hands and +streaming eyes, cried: + +"I will go to Him; I will fear and doubt no more." + +A trembling hand was now laid on Edith's shoulder, and, looking up, +she saw Mrs. Lacey standing by her side with a face so white, so +eager, so full of unutterable longing, that it might have made a +Christian artist's ideal of a soul famishing for the "Bread of Life." +In a low, timid, yet thrilling tone, she asked: + +"Miss Allen, do you think He would receive such as me?" + +"Yes, thus," cried Edith, as with a divine impulse and a great +yearning pity she sprang up and threw her arms around Mrs. Lacey. + +Hope dawned in the poor worn face like the morning. Belief in God's +love and sympathy seemed to flow into her sad heart from the other +human heart that was pressed against it. The spiritual electric circle +was completed--Edith, with her hand of faith in God's, took the +trembling, groping hand of another and placed it there also. + +Two great tears gathered in Mrs. Lacey's eyes, and she bowed her head +for a moment on Edith's shoulder, and murmured, "I'll try--I think I +may venture to Him." + +Hannibal now appeared at the door, saying, rather huskily and +brokenly, considering his message: + +"Miss Edie, you'se mudder's awake, an' 'd like some water." + +"That's what we all have been wanting, 'water'--'the water of life,'" +said Mrs. Groody, wiping her eyes, "and never was my parched old heart +so refreshed before. I don't care how hot this summer is, or how +aggravatin' things are, I feel as if I'd be helped through it. And, my +dear, good-night. I come here to try to do you good, and you've done +me more good than I ever thought could happen again. I'm goin' to kiss +you--I can't help it. Good-by, and may the good Lord bless your sweet +face;" and Mrs. Groody, like one of old, climbed up into her chariot, +and "went on her way rejoicing." + +In their close good-night embrace, Laura whispered, "I begin to +understand it a little now, Edie, but I think I see everything only +through your eyes, not my own." + +"As old Malcom said to me the other day, so now I say to you, 'Ye'll +learn it a' soon.'" + +Edith soon retired to rest also, and Mrs. Lacey sat at Mrs. Allen's +side, returning the sick woman's slights and scorn, somewhat as the +patient God returns ours, by watching over her. + +Her eyes, no longer cast down with the pathetic discouragement of the +past, seemed looking far away upon some distant scene. She was +following in her thoughts the steps of the Magi from the East to +where, as yet far distant, the "Star of Bethlehem" glimmered with +promise and hope. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +HANNIBAL LEARNS HOW HIS HEART CAN BE WHITE + + + +When Edith rose the next morning she found Laura only at her mother's +bedside. Mrs. Lacey had gone home quite early, saying that she would +soon come again. Mrs. Allen's delirium had passed away, leaving her +exceedingly weak, but the doctor said, at his morning call: + +"With quiet and good nursing she will slowly regain her usual health." + +After he was gone, Laura said: "Taking care of mother will now be my +work, Edie. I feel a good deal stronger. I'll doze in a chair during +the day, and I am a light sleeper at night, so I don't think we shall +need any more watchers. Poor Mrs. Lacey works hard at home, I am sure, +and I don't want to trespass on her kindness any longer. So if Mrs. +Groody sends you work you may give all your time to it." + +And early after breakfast quite a bundle did come from the hotel, with +a scrawl from the housekeeper: "You may mend this linen, my dear, and +I'll send for it to-morrow night." + +Edith's eyes sparkled at the sight of the work as they never had over +the costliest gifts of jewelry. Sitting down in the airy parlor, no +longer kept in state for possible callers, she put on her thimble, +and, with a courage and heroism greater than those of many a knight +drawing for the first time his ancestral sword, she took her needle +and joined the vast army of sewing-women. Lowly was the position and +work first assigned to her--only mending coarse linen. And yet it was +with a thrill of gratitude and joy, and a stronger hope than she had +yet experienced, that she sat down to the first real work for which +she would be paid, and in her exultation she brandished her little +needle at the spectres want and fear, as a soldier might his weapon. + +Hannibal stood in the kitchen regarding her with moist eyes and +features that twitched nervously. + +"Oh, Miss Edie, I neber tho't you'd come to dat." + +"It's one of the best things I've come to yet," said Edith, cheerily. +"We shall be taken care of, Hannibal. Cheer up your faithful old +heart. Brighter days are coming." + +But, for some reason, Hannibal didn't cheer up, and he stood looking +very wistfully at Edith. At last he commenced: + +"It does my ole black heart good to hear you talk so, Miss Edie--" + +"Why do you persist in calling your heart black? It's no such thing," +interrupted Edith. + +"Yes, 'tis, Miss Edie," said Hannibal, despondently, "I'se know 'tis. +I'se black outside, and I allers kinder feel dat I'se more black +inside. Neber felt jes right here yet, Miss Edie," said the old man, +laying his hand on his breast. "I come de nighest to't de toder day +when you said you lubbed me. Dat seemed to go down deep, but not quite +to whar de trouble stays all de time. + +"But, Miss Edie," continued he in a whisper, "I'se hope you'll forgive +me, but I couldn't help listenin' to you last night. I neber heerd +such talk afore. It seemed to broke my ole black heart all up, and +made it feel like de big ribers down souf in de spring, when dey jes +oberflow eberyting. I says to myself, dat's de Friend Miss Edie say +she's gwine to tell me 'bout. And now, Miss Edie, would you mind +tellin' me little 'bout Him? Cause if He's your Friend, I'd t'ink a +heap of Him, too. Not dat I specs He's gwine to bodder wid dis ole +niggah, but den I'd jes like to hear 'bout Him a little." + +Edith laid down her work, and turned her glorious dark eyes, brimming +over with sympathy, on the poor old fellow, as he stood in the doorway +fairly trembling with the excess of his feeling. + +"Come and sit down here by me," she said. + +"Oh, Miss Edie, I'se isn't--" + +"No words--come." + +Hannibal crouched down on a divan near. + +"What makes you think He wouldn't bother with you?" + +"Well, I'se don't know 'zactly, Miss Edie. I'se only Hannibal." + +"Hannibal," said Edith, earnestly, "you are the best man I know in all +the world." + +"Oh, Lor bless you, Miss Edie, how you talk! you'se jes done gone +crazy." + +"No I haven't. I never spoke in more sober earnest. You are faithful +and true, unselfish and patient, and abound in the best material of +which men are made. I admit," she added, with a twinkle in her eye, +"that one very common element of manhood, as I have observed it, is +dreadfully lacking, that is conceit. I wish I were as good as you are, +Hannibal." + +"Oh, Miss Edie, don't talk dat way, you jes done discourages me. If +you'd only say, Hannibal, you'se sick, but I'se got a mighty powerful +medicine for you; if you'd only say, I know you isn't good; I know +your ole heart is black, but I know a way to make it white, I'd stoop +down and kiss de ground you walks on. Dere's sumpen wrong here, Miss +Edie," said he, laying his hand on his breast again, and shaking his +head, with a tear in the corner of each eye--"I tells you dere's +sumpen wrong. I don't know jes what 'tis. My heart's like a baby a- +cryin' for it doesn't know what. Den it gits jes like a stun, as hard +and as heavy. I don't understan' my ole heart; I guess it's kinder +sick and wants a doctor, 'cause it don't work right. But dere's one +ting I does understan'. It 'pears dat it would be a good heaven 'nuff +if I'se could allers be waitin' on you alls. But Massa Allen's gone; +Miss Zell, poor chile, is gone; and I'se growin' ole, Miss Edie, I'se +growin' ole. De wool is white, de jints are stiff, and de feet tired. +Dey can't tote dis ole body roun' much longer. Where am I gwine, Miss +Edie? What's gwine to become of ole Hannibal? I'se was allers afeard +of de dark. If I could only find you in de toder world and wait on +you, dat's all I ask, but I'se afeard I'll get lost, it seems such a +big, empty place." + +"Poor old Hannibal! Then you are 'heavy laden' too," said Edith, +gently. + +"Indeed I is, Miss Edie; 'pears as if I couldn't stan' it anoder +minute. And when I heerd you talkin' about dat Friend last night, and +tellin' how good He was to people, and He seemed to do you such a heap +of good, I thought dat I would jes like to hear little 'bout Him." +"Wait till I get my Bible," said Edith. + +"Bless you, Miss Edie, you'se needn't stop your work. You can jes tell +me any ting dat come into you'se head." + +"Then I wouldn't be like Him, Hannibal. He used to stop and give the +kindest and most patient attention to every one that came to Him, and, +as far as I can make out, the poorer they were, the more sinful and +despised they seemed, the more attention He gave to them." + +"Dat's mighty quar," said Hannibal, musingly; "not a bit like de big +folks dat I'se seen." + +"I don't understand it all myself yet, Hannibal. But the Bible tells +me that He was God come down to earth to save the world. He says to +the lost and sinful--to all who are poor and needy--in brief, to the +heavy laden, 'Come unto me.' So I went to Him, Hannibal, and you can +go just as well." + +The old man's eyes glistened, but he said, doubtfully, "Yes, but den +you'se Miss Edie, and I'se only black Hannibal. I wish we'd all lived +when He was here. I might have shine His boots, and done little tings +for Him, so He'd say, 'Poor ole Hannibal, you does as well as you +knows how. I'll 'member you, and you shan't go away in de dark.'" + +Edith smiled and cried at the same time over the quaint pathos of the +simple creature's words, but she said, earnestly, "You need not go +away in the dark, for He said, 'I am the light of the world,' and if +you go to Him you will always be in the light." + +"I'd go in a minute," said Hannibal, eagerly, "if I only know'd how, +and wasn't afeard." Then, as if a sudden thought struck him, he asked, +"Miss Edie, did He eber hab any ting to do wid a black man?" + +Edith was so unfamiliar with the Bible that she could not recall any +distinct case, but she said, with the earnestness of such full belief +on her part, that it satisfied his child-like mind, "I am sure He did, +for all kinds of people--people that no one else would touch or look +at--came to Him, or He went to them, and spoke so kindly to them and +forgave all their sins." + +"Bress Him, Miss Edie, dat kinder sounds like what I wants." + +Edith thought a moment, and, with her quick, logical mind, sought to +construct a simple chain of truth that would bring to the trusting +nature she was trying to guide the perfect assurance that Jesus' love +and mercy embraced him as truly as herself. + +They made a beautiful picture that moment; she with her hands, that +had dropped all earthly tasks for the sake of this divine work, +clasped in her lap, her lustrous eyes dewy with sympathy and feeling, +looking far away into the deep blue of the June sky, as if seeking +some heavenly inspiration; and quaint old Hannibal, leaning forward in +his eagerness, and gazing upon her, as if his life depended upon her +next utterances. + +It was a picture of the Divine Artist's own creation. He had inspired +the faith in one and the questioning unrest in the other. He, with +Edith's lips, as ever by human lips, was teaching the way of life. +Glorious privilege, that our weak voices should be as the voice of +God, telling the lost and wandering where lies the way to life and +home! The angels leaned over the golden walls to watch that scene, +while many a proud pageant passed unheeded. + +"Hannibal," said Edith, after her momentary abstraction, "God made +everything, didn't He?" + +"Sartin." + +"Then He made you, and you are one of His creatures, are you not?" + +"Sartin I is, Miss Edie." + +"Then see here what is in the Bible. Almost the last thing He said to +His followers before He went up into heaven, was, 'Go ye into all the +world and preach the gospel to every creature.' Gospel means 'good +news,' and the good news was, that God had come down from heaven and +become a man, so we wouldn't be afraid of Him, and that He would take +away their sins and save all who would let Him. Now, remember, He +didn't send His preachers to the white people, nor to the black +people, but to all the world, to every creature alike, and so He meant +you and me, Hannibal, and you as much as me. I am just as sure He will +receive you as that He received me." + +"Dat's 'nuff, Miss Edie. Ole Hannibal can go too. And I'se a-gwine, +Miss Edie, I'se a-gwine right to Him. Dere's only one ting dat +troubles me yet. What is I gwine to do wid my ole black heart? I know +dere's sumpen wrong wid it. It's boddered me all my life." + +"Oh, Hannibal," said Edith, eagerly, "I was reading something last +night that I think will just suit you, I thought I would read a little +in the Old Testament, and I turned to a place that I didn't understand +very well, but I came to these words, and they made me think of you, +for you are always talking about your 'old black heart.'" And she +read: + +"I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; +and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them +an heart of flesh." + +To Hannibal the words seemed a revelation from heaven. Standing before +her, with streaming eyes, he said: + +"Oh, Miss Edie, you'se been an angel of light to me. Dat was jes de +berry message I wanted. I knowed my ole heart was nothin' but a black +stun. De Lord couldn't do nothin' wid it but trow it away. But tanks +be to His name, He says He'll give me a new one--a heart of flesh. Now +I sees dat my heart can be white like yours, Miss Edie. Bress de Lord, +I'se a-gwine, I'se a-comin'," and Hannibal vanished into the kitchen, +feeling that he must be alone in the glad tumult of his emotions. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +EDITH'S AND ARDEN'S FRIENDSHIP + + + +As Edith laid aside her work for a frugal dinner at one o'clock, she +heard the sound of a hoe in her garden. The thought of Arden at once +recurred to her, but looking out she saw old Malcom. Throwing a +handkerchief over her head, she ran out to him, exclaiming: + +"How good you are, Mr. McTrump, to come and help me when I know you +are so very busy at home!" + +"Weel, nothin' to boast on," replied Malcom; "I tho't that if ye had +na one a-lookin' after the garden save Hannibal's 'spook,' ye'd have +but a ghaistly crop. But I'm a-thinkin' there's mair than a ghaist +been here." + +"It was Arden Lacey," said Edith, frankly, but with deepening color. +Malcom, in telling his wife about it, said, "She looked like the rose- +bush, a' in bloom, that she was a-stonnin' beside." + +Edith, seeing the mischievous twinkle in her little friend's eye, +added hastily, "Both Mrs. Lacey and her son have been very kind to us +in our sickness and trouble, as well as yourself. But, Mr. McTrump," +she continued, anxious to change the subject, also eager to speak on +the topic uppermost in her thoughts, "I think I am beginning to 'learn +it a',' as you said, about that good Friend who suffered for us that +we might not suffer. What you and your wife said to me the other day +led me to read the 'Gude Book' after I got home. I don't feel as I did +then. I think I can trust Him now." + +Malcom dropped his hoe and came over into the path beside her. + +"God be praised!" he said. "I gie je the right hond o' fellowship an' +welcome ye into the kirk o' the Lord. Ye noo belong to the household +o' faith, an' God's true Israel, an' may His gude Spirit guide ye into +all truth." + +The little man spoke very earnestly, and with a certain dignity and +authority that his small stature and rude working-dress could not +diminish. A sudden feeling of solemnity and awe came over Edith, and +she felt as if she were crossing the mystic threshold and entering the +one true church consisting of all believers in Christ. + +For a moment she reverently bowed her head, and a sweeter sense of +security came over her, as if she were no longer an outsider, but had +been received into the household. + +Malcom, "a priest unto God" through his faith, officiated at the +simple ceremony. The birds sang the choral service. The wind-shaken +roses, blooming around her, with their sweet ordos, were the censers +and incense, and the sunlighted garden, the earliest sacred place of +Bible history, where the first fair woman worshipped, was the hallowed +ground of the initiatory rite. + +"Why, Mr. McTrump, I feel almost as if I had joined the church," said +Edith, after a moment. + +"An' sae ye ha' afore God, an' I hope ere long ye'll openly profess +yer faith before men." + +"Do you think I ought?" said Edith, thoughtfully. + +"Of coorse I do, but the Gude Book'll teach a' aboot it. Ye canna gang +far astray wi' that to guide ye." + +"I would like to join the church that you belong to, Mr. McTrump, as +soon as I feel that I am ready, for it was you and your good wife that +turned my thoughts in the right direction. I was almost desperate with +trouble and shame when I came to you that afternoon, and it was your +speaking of the Bible and Jesus, and especially your kindness, that +made me feel that there might be some hope and help in God." + +The old man's eyes became so moist that he turned away for a moment, +but recovering himself after a little, he said: + +"See, noo, our homely deeds and words can be like the seeds we drop +into the mould. Look aroon once and see how green and grand the garden +is, and a' from the wee brown seeds we planted the spring. Sae would +the garden o' the Lord bloom and floorish if a' were droppin' a 'word +in season' and a bit o' kindness here and there. But if I stay here +an' preach to ye that need na preachin', these sins o' the garden, the +weeds, will grow apace. Go you an' look in yer strawberry-bed." + +With an exclamation of delight, Edith pounced upon a fair-sized red +berry, the first she had picked from her own vines. Then glancing +around, she saw one and another showing its red cheek through the +green leaves, till with a little cry of exultation she said: + +"Oh, Mr. McTrump, I'll get enough for mother and Laura." + +"Aye, and enoof to moisten yer own red lips wi' too, I'm a-thinkin'. +There'll be na crop the year wourth speakin' of; but next June 'twill +puzzle ye to gither them. But ye a' can ha' a dainty saucer yoursels +the season, when ye're a mind to stoop for them." + +Edith soon had the pleasure of seeing her mother and Laura enjoying +some, and, as Malcom said, there were plenty for her, and they tasted +like the ambrosia of the gods. Varied experiences had so thoroughly +engrossed her thoughts and time the past few days, that she had +scarcely looked toward her garden. But with the delicious flavor of +the strawberries lingering in her mouth, and with the consciousness +that she enjoyed picking them much more than sewing, the thought of +winning her bread by the culture of the ground grew in her favor. + +"Oh, how much rather would I be out there with Malcom!" she sighed. + +Glancing up from her work during the afternoon, she saw Arden Lacey on +his way to the village. There was a strange mingling of hope and fear +in his mind. His mother's manner had been such as to lead him to say +when alone with her after breakfast: + +"I think your watching has done you good, mother, in stead of wearying +you too much, as I feared." + +She had suddenly turned and placed both her hands on his shoulders, +saying: + +"Arden, I hardly dare speak of it yet. It seems too good to be true, +but a hope is coming into my heart like the dawn after night. She's +worthy of your love, however it may result, and if I find true what +she told me last night I shall have reason to bless her name forever; +but I see only a glimmer of light yet, and I rejoice with fear and +trembling." And she told him what had occurred. + +He was deeply moved, but not for the same cause as his mother. His +desire and devotion went no further than Edith. "Can she have read my +letter?" he thought, and he was consumed with anxiety for some +expression of her feeling toward him. Therefore he was glad that +business called him to the village that afternoon, but his steps were +slow as he approached the little cottage, and his eyes were upon it as +a pilgrim gazes at a shrine he long has sought. He envied Malcom +working in the garden, and felt that if he could work there every day, +it would be Adam's life before he fell. Then he caught a glimpse of +Edith sewing at the window, and he dropped his eyes instantly. He +would not be so afraid of a battery of a hundred guns as of that poor +sewing-girl (for such Edith now was), stitching away on Mrs. Groody's +coarse hotel linen. But Edith had noted his timid, wistful looks, and +calling Hannibal, said: + +"Please give that note to Mr. Lacey. He is just passing toward the +village." + +Hannibal, with the impressive dignity he had learned in olden times, +handed the missive to Arden, saying, "Miss Edie telled me to guv you +dis 'scription." + +If Hannibal had been Hebe he could not have been a more welcome +messenger. + +Arden could not help his hand trembling as he took the letter, but he +managed to say, "I hope Miss Allen is well." + +"Her health am berry much disproved," and Hannibal retired with a +stately bow. + +Arden quickened his steps, holding the missive in his hand. As soon as +he was out of sight, he opened and devoured Edith's words. The light +of a great joy dawned in his face, and made it look noble and +beautiful, as indeed almost every human face appears when the light of +a pure love falls upon it. Where most men would have murmured at the +meagre return for their affection, he felt himself immeasurably +rewarded and enriched, and it seemed as if he were walking on air the +rest of the day. With a face set like a flint, he resolved to be true +to the condition implied in the underscored word "friendship," and +never to whisper of love to her again. But a richer experience was +still in store for him. For, on his return, in the cool of the +evening, Edith was in the garden picking currants. She saw him coming, +and thought, "If he is ever to be a friend worth the name, I must +break the ice of his absurd diffidence and formality. And the sooner +he comes to know me as I am, the sooner he will find out that I am +like other people, and he will have a new 'revelation' that will cure +him of his infatuation. I would like him for a _friend_ very much, not +only because I need his help, but because one likes a little society +now and then, and he seems so well educated, if he is 'quar,' as +Hannibal says." So she startled poor Arden almost as much as if one +of his Shakespearean heroines had called him in audible voice, by +saying, as he came opposite her: + +"Mr. Lacey, won't you come in a moment and tell me if it is time to +pick my currants, and whether you think I could sell them in the +village, or at the hotel?" + +This address, so matter-of-fact in tone and character, seemed to him +like the June twilight, containing, in some subtle manner, the essence +of all that was beautiful and full of promise in his heart-history. He +bowed and went toward the little gate to comply with her request, as +Adam might if he had been created outside of Eden and Eve inside, and +she had looked over a flowering hedge in the purple twilight and told +him to come in. He was not going merely to look at currants and +consider their marketable condition; he was entering openly upon the +knightly service to which he had devoted himself. He was approaching +his idol, which was not a heathen stock or stone, but a sweet little +woman. In regard to the currants, he ventured dubiously-- + +"They might do for pies." + +In regard to herself, his eyes said, in spite of his purpose to be +merely friendly, that she was too good for the gods of Mount Olympus. +He both amused and interested Edith, whose long familiarity with +society and lack of any such feeling as swayed him made her quite at +ease. With a twinkle in her eyes, she said: + +"I have thought that perhaps Mrs. Groody could help me find sale for +them at the hotel." + +"I am going there to-morrow, and I will ask her for you, if you wish," +said Arden, timidly. + +"Thank you," replied Edith. "I shall be very much obliged to you if +you will. You see, I wish to sell everything out of the garden that I +can find a market for." + +She was rather astonished at the effect of this mercenary speech, for +there was a wonderful blending of sympathy and admiration in his face +as he said: + +"I am frequently going to the hotel and village, and if you will let +me know what you have to dispose of, I can find out whether it is in +demand, and carry it to market for you." He could not help adding, +with a voice trembling with feeling, "Miss Allen, I am so glad you +permit me to be of some help to you." + +"Oh, dear!" thought Edith, "how can I make him understand what I +really am?" She turned to him with an expression that was both +perplexed and quizzical, and said: + +"Mr. Lacey, I very frankly and gratefully accept your delicately +offered friendship (emphasizing the last word), not only because of my +need, but of yours also. If any one needs a sensible friend, I think +you do. You truly must have lived a 'hermit's life in the world' to +have such strange ideas of people. Let me tell you as a perfect +certainty, that no such person exists as the Edith Allen that you have +imagined. She is no more a reality than your other shadows, and the +more you know of me, the sooner you will find it out. I am not in the +least like a heroine in a romance. I live on the most substantial food +rather than moonlight, and usually have an excellent appetite. I am +the most practical matter-of-fact creature in existence, and you will +find no one in this place more sharp on the question of dollars and +cents. Indeed, I am continually in a most mercenary frame of mind, and +this very moment here, in the romantic June twilight, if you ransacked +history, poetry, and all the fine arts, you could not tell me anything +half so beautiful, half so welcome, as how to make money in a fair, +honorable way." + +"There," thought she, "that will be another 'revelation' to him. If he +don't jump over the garden fence in his haste to escape such a +monster, I shall be glad." + +But Arden's face only grew more grave and gentle as he looked down +upon her, and he asked: + +"Is it because you love the money itself, Miss Allen?" + +"Well, no," said Edith, somewhat taken aback. "I can never earn enough +to make it worth while to do that. Misers love to count their money," +she added, with a little pathetic accent in her voice, "and I fear +mine will go before I can count it." + +"You wish me to think less of you, then, because you are bravely, and +without thought of sparing yourself, trying to earn money to provide +home-shelter and comfort for your feeble mother and sister. You wish +me to think you commonplace because you have the heroism to do any +kind of work, rather than be helpless and dependent. Pardon me, but +for such a 'practical, matter-of-fact' lady, I do not think your logic +is good." + +Edith's vexation and perplexity only increased, and she said, +earnestly, "But I wish you to understand that I am only Edith Allen, +and as poor as poverty, nothing but a sewing girl, and only hoping to +arrive at the dignity of a gardener. The majority of the world thinks +I am not even fit to speak to," she added, in a low tone. + +Arden bowed his head, as if in reverence before her, and then said, +firmly: + +"And I wish you to understand that I am only Arden Lacey, with a sot +for a father, and the scorn, contempt, and hatred of all the world as +my heritage. I am a slipshod farmer. Our place is heavily mortgaged, +and will eventually be sold away from us. It grows more weeds now than +anything else; and it seems that nettles have been the principal crop +that I have reaped all my life. Thus, you see, I am poorer than +poverty, and am rich only in my mother, and, eventually, I hope," he +added timidly, "in the possession of your friendship, Miss Allen; I +shall try so sincerely and hard to deserve it." + +With a frown, a laugh, and a shy look of sympathy at him, Edith said, +"I don't see but you have got to find out your mistake for yourself. +Time and facts cure many follies." But she found little encouragement +in his incredulous smile. + +The next moment she turned upon him so sharply that he was startled. + +"I am a business woman," she said, "and conduct my affairs on business +principles. You said, I think, you would help me find a market for the +produce of my place?" + +"Certainly," he replied. + +"As certainly you must take fifteen per cent commission on all sales." + +"Oh, Miss Allen," commenced Arden, "I couldn't--" + +"There," said she, decisively, "you haven't the first idea of +business. Not a thing can you touch unless you comply with my +conditions. There is no sentiment, I assure you, connected with +currants and cabbages." + +"You may be certain, Miss Allen, that I would comply with any +condition," said Arden, with the air of one who is cornered, "but let +me suggest, since we are arranging this matter so strictly on business +grounds, that ten per cent is all I should take. That is the regular +commission, and is all I pay in sending produce to New York." + +"Oh, I didn't know that," said the experienced and uncompromising +woman of business, innocently. "Do you think that would pay you for +your trouble?" + +"I think it would," he replied, so demurely and yet with such a +twinkle in his blue eyes, that now looked very different with the +light of hope and happiness in them, that Edith turned away with a +laugh. + +But she said, with assumed sharpness, "See that you keep your accounts +straight. I shall be a very dragon over your account-book." + +Thus the ice was broken, and Edith and Arden became _friends_. + +The future has now been quite clearly indicated to the reader, and, +lest my story should grow wearisome as a "twice-told tale," we pass +over several subsequent months with but a few words. + +It was not a good fruit year, and Edith's place had been sadly +neglected previous to her possession. Therefore, though Arden +surprised himself in the sharp business traits he developed as Edith's +salesman, the results were not very large. But still they greatly +assisted her, and amounted to more than the earnings of her unskilled +hands from other sources. She insisted on doing everything on business +principles, and made Arden take his ten per cent, which was of real +help to him in this way: he gave all the money to his mother, saying, +"_I_ couldn't spend it to save my life." Mrs. Lacey had many uses +for every penny she could obtain. + +Then Edith paid old Malcom by making up bouquets for sale at the +hotel, and arranging baskets of flowers for parties there and +elsewhere, and other lighter labors. Mrs. Groody continued to send her +work; and thus during the summer and early fall she managed to make +her garden and her labor provide for all family expenses, saving what +was left of the four hundred, after paying all debts, for winter need. +Moreover, she stored away in cellar and attic enough of the products +of the garden to be of great help also. + +Mrs. Allen did recover her usual health, and also her usual modes of +thought and feeling. The mental and moral habits of a lifetime are not +readily changed. Often and earnestly did Edith talk with her mother, +but with few evidences of the result she longed to see. + +Mrs. Allen's condition, in view of the truth, was the most hopeless +one of all. She saw only her preconceived ideas, and not the truth +itself. One day she said, with some irritation, to Edith, who was +pleading with her: + +"Do you think I am a heathen? Of course, I believe the Bible. Of +course, I believe in Jesus Christ. I have been a member of the church +ever since I was sixteen." + +Edith sighed, and thought, "Only He who can satisfy her need can +reveal it to her." + +Poor Mrs. Allen! With the strange infatuation of a worldly mind, she +was turning to the world, and it alone, for hope and solace. Untaught +by the wretched experience of the past, she was led to enter upon a +new and similar scheme for the aggrandizement of her family, as will +be explained in another chapter. + +Laura regained her strength somewhat, and was able to relieve Edith of +the care of her mother and the lighter duties of the house. Her faith +developed like that shy, delicate blossom called the "wind-flower," +easily shaken, and yet with a certain hardiness and power to live and +thrive in sterile places. + +Edith and Mrs. Lacey were eventually received into the church that +Malcom attended, and, after the simple service, they took dinner with +the old Scotchman and his wife. Malcom seemed hardly "in the body" all +day. + +"My heart's a-bloom," he said, "wi' a' the sweet posies that God ever +made blush when he looked at them the first time, an' ye seem the +sweetest o' them a', Miss Edith. Ah, but the Crude Husbandman gathered +a fair blossom the day." + +"Now, Mr. McTrump," said Edith, reproachfully, but with a face like +Malcom's posies, "you shouldn't give compliments on Sunday." For Arden +and Rose were present also, and Edith thought, "Such foolish words +will only increase his infatuation." + +"Weel," said Malcom, scratching his head, in his perplexed effort at +apology, "I wud na mak ye vain, nor hurt yer conscience, but it kind +o' slippit out afore I could stop it." + +In the laugh that followed Malcom's explanation Edith felt that +matters had not been helped much, and she adroitly turned the +conversation. + +Public opinion, from being at first very bitter and scornful against +the Allens, gradually began to soften. One after another, as they +recognized Edith's patient, determined effort to do right, began to +give her the credit and the respect to which she was entitled. Little +acts and tokens of kindly feeling became more frequent, and were like +glints of sunlight on her shadowed path. But the great majority felt +that they could have no associations with such as the Allens, and +completely ignored them. + +In their relations with the church, Edith and Mrs. Lacey found +increasing satisfaction. Many of its humble, and some of its more +influential, members treated them with much kindness and sympathy, and +they realized more and more that there are good, kind people in the +world, if you look in the right way and right places for them. The +Rev. Mr. Knox was a faithful preacher and pastor, and if his sermons +were a little dry and doctrinal at times, they were as sound and sweet +as a nut. Moreover, both Edith and Mrs. Lacey were sadly deficient in +the doctrines, neither having ever had any religious instruction, and +they listened with the grave, earnest interest of those desiring to be +taught. + +Mrs. Groody reconnected herself with her old church "I want to go +where I can shout 'Glory!'" she said. + +Rose but faintly sympathized with her mother's feelings. Her restless, +ambitious spirit turned longingly toward the world. Its attractions +she could understand, but not those of faith. Through her father's +evil habits, and Arden's poor farming, the pressure of poverty rested +heavier and heavier on the family, and she had about resolved to go to +New York and find employment in some store. + +Arden rarely went to church, but read at home. He was somewhat +sceptical in regard to the Bible, not that he had ever carefully +examined either it or its evidences, but he had read much of the +prevalent semi-infidelity, and was a little conceited over his +independent thinking. Then, in a harsh, sweeping cynicism, he utterly +detested church people, calling them the "holy sect of the Pharisees." + +"Bat they are not all such," his mother would say. + +"Oh, no," he would reply; "there are some sincere ones, of course; but +I think they would be better out than in such a company of +hypocrites." + +But as he saw Edith's sincerity, and learned of her purpose to unite +with the church, he kept these views more and more in the background; +but he had too much respect for her and his mother's faith to go with +them to what they regarded as a sacred place, from merely the personal +motive of being near Edith. + +One day Mrs. Lacey and Edith walked down to the evening prayer- +meeting. Arden, who had business in the village, was to call for them +at its close; as they were walking home, Edith suddenly asked him: + +"Why don't you go to church?" + +"I don't like the people I meet there." + +"What have you against them?" + +"Well, there is Mr. Hard. He is one of the 'lights and pillars'; and +he would have sold the house over your head if you had not paid him. +He can 'devour a widow's house' as well as they of olden time." + +"That is not the question," said the practical Edith, earnestly. "What +have you to do with Mr. Hard, or he with you? Does he propose--is he +able to save you? The true question is, What have you got against +Jesus Christ?" + +"Well, really, Miss Edith, I can have nothing against Him. Both +history and legend unite in presenting Him as one of the purest and +noblest of men. But pardon me if I say in all honesty that I cannot +quite accept your belief in regard to Him and the Bible in general. A +man can hardly be a man without exercising the right of independent +thought. I cannot take a book called the Bible for granted." + +"But," asked, Edith keenly, "are you not taking other books for +granted? Answer me truly, Mr. Lacey, have you carefully and patiently +investigated this subject, not only on the side of your sceptical +writers, but on God's side also? He has plenty of facts, as well as +the infidels, and my rich, lasting, rational, spiritual experience is +as much a fact as that stone there, and a good deal higher and better +one, I think." + +Arden was silent for some little time, and they could see in the +moonlight that his face was very grave and thoughtful. At last he +said, as if it had been wrung from him: + +"Miss Allen, to be honest with you and myself, I have never given the +subject such a fair examination." After a moment he continued, "Even +if I became convinced that all were true, I might still remain at +home, for I could find far more advantage in reading books, or the +Bible itself, than from Mr. Knox's dry sermons." + +"I think you are wrong," said Edith, gently but firmly. "Granting the +premise you admitted a moment ago, that Christ was one of the purest +and noblest of men, you surely, with your chivalric instincts, would +say that such a man ought to be imitated." + +"Yes," said Arden, "and He denounced the Pharisees." + +"And He worshipped with them also," said Edith, quickly. "He went to +the temple with the others. What was there to interest Him in the +dreary forlorn little synagogue at Nazareth? and yet He was there with +the regularity of the Sabbath. It was the best form of faith and +worship then existing, and He sustained it by every means in His +power, till He could give the people something better. Suppose all the +churches in this place were closed, not one in a hundred would or +could read the books you refer to. If your example were followed they +would be closed. As far as your example goes it tends to close them. I +have heard Mr. Knox say, that wherever Christian worship and the +Christian Sabbath are not observed, society rapidly deteriorates. Is +it not true?" + +They had stopped at Edith's gate. Arden averted his face for a moment, +then turning toward Edith he gave her his hand, saying: + +"Yes, it is true, and a true, faithful friend you have been to me to- +night. I admit myself vanquished." + +Edith gave his hand a cordial pressure, saying earnestly, "You are not +vanquished by the young ignorant girl, Edith Allen, but by the truth +that will yet vanquish the world." + +After that Arden went regularly with them to church, and tried to give +sincere attention to the service, but his uncurbed fancy was wandering +to the ends of the earth most of the time; or his thoughts were +dwelling in rapt attention on Edith. She, after all, was the only +object of his faith and worship, though he had a growing intellectual +conviction that her faith was true. + +And so the months passed into autumn, but with the nicest sense of +honor he refrained from word or deed that would remind Edith that he +was her lover. She became greatly attached to him, and he seemed +almost like a brother to her. She found increasing pleasure in his +society, for Arden, after the restraint of his diffidence was +banished, could talk well, and he opened to her the rich treasures of +his reading, and with almost a poet's fancy and power pictured to her +the storied past. + +To both herself and Mrs. Lacey, life grew sunnier and sweeter. But +they each had a heavy burden on their hearts, which they daily brought +to the feet of the Compassionate One. They united in praying for Mrs. +Lacey's husband, and for Zell; and their strong faith and love would +take no denial. But, as Laura had said, the silence of the grave +seemed to have swallowed lost Zell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +ZELL + + + +"And the silence of the grave ought to swallow such as poor Zell had +become," is, perhaps, the thought of some. All reference to her and +her class should be suppressed. + +We firmly say, No! If so, the New Testament must be suppressed. The +Divine Teacher spoke plainly both of the sin and the sinner. He had +scathing denunciation for the one, and compassion and mercy for the +other. Shall we enforce His teachings against all other forms of evil, +and not against this deadliest one of all--and that, too, in the +laxity and wide demoralization of our age, when temptation lurks on +every hand, and parents are often sleepless with just anxiety? + +Evil is active, alluring, suggesting, insinuating itself when least +expected, and many influences are at work, with the full approval of +society, to poison forever all pure thoughts. And temptation is sure +to come at first as an angel of light. + +There is no safety save in solemn words of warning, the wholesome +terror which knowledge inspires, the bracing of principle, and the +ennobling of Christian faith. There are too many incarnate fiends who +will take advantage of the innocence of ignorance. + +Zell is not in her grave. She is sinning, but more sinned against. He +who said to one like her, of old, "Her sins, which are many, are +forgiven," loves her still, and Edith is praying for her. The grave +cannot close over her yet. + +But as we look upon this long-lost one, as she reclines on a sofa in +Van Dam's luxurious apartments, as we see her temples throbbing with +pain, and that her cheeks are flushed and feverish, it would seem that +the grave might soon hide her from a contemptuous and vindictive +world. + +Her head does ache sadly--it seems bursting with pain; but her heart +aches with a bitterer anguish. Zell had too fine a nature to sin +brutally and unfeelingly. Her betrayer's treachery wounded her more +deeply than he could understand. Even her first strong love for him +could not bridge the chasm of guilt to which he led her, and her +passionate nature and remorse often caused her to turn upon, him with +such scathing reproaches that even he, in his hardihood, trembled. + +Knowing how proud and high-strung she was, he feared to reveal his +treachery in New York, a locality with which she was familiar; so he +said that very important business called him at once to Boston, a city +where he had few acquaintances. Zell reluctantly acquiesced in this +further journey. + +They jaunted about in the North and West through the summer and +autumn, and now have but recently returned to New York. + +With a wild terror she saw that his passion for her was waning. +Therefore, her reproaches and threats became at times almost terrific, +and again her servile entreaties were even more pitiable and dreadful, +in view of what a true wife's position and right ought to be. He, +wearying of her fierce and alternating moods, and selfishly thinking +of his own ease and comfort, as was ever the case, had resolved to +throw her off at the first opportunity. + +But retribution for both was near. The smallpox was almost epidemic in +the city: Zell's silk had swept against a beggar's infected rags, and +fourteen days later appeared the fatal symptoms. + +And truly she is weary and heart-sick this afternoon. She never +remembered feeling so ill. The thought of death appalled her. She +felt, as never before, that she wanted some one to love and take care +of her. + +Van Dam entered, and said, rather roughly: + +"What's the matter?" + +"I'm sick," said Zell, faintly. + +He muttered an oath. + +She arose from the sofa and tottered to his easy-chair, knelt, and +clasped his knees. + +"Guilliam," she pleaded, "I am very sick. I have a feeling that I +shall die. Won't you marry me? Won't you take care of your poor little +Zell, that loved you so well as to leave all for you? Perhaps I +sha'n't burden you much longer, but, if I do get well, I will be your +patient slave, if you will only marry me;" and the tears poured over +the hot, feverish cheeks, that they could not cool. + +His only reply was to ask, with some irritation: + +"How do you feel?" + +"Oh, my head aches, my bones ache, every part of my body aches, but my +heart aches worst of all. You can ease that, Guilliam. In the name of +God's mercy, won't you?" + +A sudden thought caused the coward's face to grow white with fear. "I +must have a doctor see you," was his only reply to her appeal, and he +passed hastily out. + +Zell felt that a blow would have been better than his indifference, +and she crawled back to her couch. A little later, she was conscious +that a physician was feeling her pulse, and examining her symptoms. +After he was gone she had strength enough to take off her jewelry and +rings--all, save one solitaire diamond, that her father had given her. +The rest seemed to oppress her with their weight. She then threw +herself on the bed. + +She was next conscious that some one was lifting her up. She roused +for a moment, and stared around. There were several strange faces. + +"What do you want? What are you going to do with me?" she asked, in a +thick voice, and in vague terror. + +"I am sorry, miss," said one of the men, in an official tone; "but you +have the smallpox, and we must take you to the hospital." + +She gave one shriek of horror. A hand was placed over her mouth. She +murmured faintly: + +"Guilliam--help!" and then, under the effects of disease and fear, +became partially unconscious; but her hand clenched, and with some +instinct hard to understand, remained so, over the diamond ring that +was her father's gift. + +She was conscious of riding in something hard over the stony street, +for the jolting hurt her cruelly. She was conscious of the sound of +water, for she tried to throw herself into it, that it might cool her +fever. She was conscious of reaching some place, and then she felt as +if she had no rest for many days, and yet was not awake. But through +it all she kept her hand closed on her father's gift. At times it +seemed to her that some one was trying to take it off, but she +instinctively struggled and cried out, and the hand was withdrawn. + +At last one night she seemed to wake and come to herself. She opened +her eyes and looked timidly around the dim ward. All was strange and +unaccountable. She feared that she was in another world. But as she +raised her hand to her head, as if to clear away the mist of +uncertainty, a sparkle from the diamond caught her eye. For a long +time she stared vacantly at it, with the weak, vague feeling that in +some sense it might be a clew. Its faint lustre was like the glimmer +of a star through a rift in the clouds to a lost traveller. Its +familiar light and position remind him of home, and by its ray he +guesses in what direction to move; so the crystallized light upon her +finger threw its faint glimmer into the past, and by its help Zell's +weak mind groped its way down from the hour it was given to the moment +when she became partially unconscious in Van Dam's apartments. But the +word smallpox was burned into her brain, and she surmised that she was +in a hospital. + +At last a woman passed. Zell feebly called her. + +"What do you want?" said a rather gruff voice. + +"I want to write a letter." + +"You can't. It's against the rules." + +"I must," pleaded Zell. "Oh, as you are a woman, and hope in God's +mercy, don't refuse me." + +"Can't break the rules," said the woman, and she was about to pass on. + +"Stop!" said Zell, in a whisper. "See there," and she flashed the +diamond upon her. "I'll give you that if you'll promise before God to +send a letter for me. It would take you many months to earn the value +of that." + +The woman was a part of the city government, so she acted +characteristically. She brought Zell writing materials and a bit of +candle, saying: + +"Be quick!" + +With her poor, stiff, diseased hand, Zell wrote: + +"Guilliam--You cannot know where I am. You cannot know what has +happened. You could not be such a fiend as to cast me off and send me +here to die--and die I shall. The edge of the grave seems crumbling +under me as I write. If you have a spark of love for me, come and see +me before I die. Oh, Guilliam, Guilliam! what a heaven of a home I +would have made you, if you had only married me! It would have been my +whole life to make you happy. I said bitter words to you--forgive +them. We both have sinned--can God forgive us? I will not believe you +know what has happened. You are grieving for me--looking for me. They +took me away while you were gone. Come and see me before I die. Good- +by, I'm writing in the dark--I'm dying in the dark--my soul is in the +dark--I'm going away in the dark--where, O God, where? + "Your poor little Zell. + "Smallpox Hospital (I don't know date)." + +Poor, poor Zell! As in the case of a tempest-tossed one of old, "sun, +moon, and stars" had long been hidden. + +Almost fainting with weakness, she sealed and directed the letter, +drew off the ring, pressed it to her lips, and then turned her eyes, +unnaturally large and bright, on the woman waiting at her side, and +said: + +"Look at me! Promise me you will see that this letter is delivered. +Remember, I am going to die. If you ever hope for an hour's peace, +promise!" + +"I promise," said the woman solemnly, for she was as superstitious as +avaricious, and though she had no hesitancy in breaking the rules and +taking a bribe, she would not have dared for her life to have risked +treachery to a girl whom she believed dying. + +Zell gave her the ring and the letter, and sank back for the time +unconscious. + +The woman had her means of communication with the city, and before +many hours elapsed the letter was on its way. + +Van Dam was in a state of nervous fear till the fourteen days passed, +and then he felt that he was safe. He had his rooms thoroughly +fumigated, and was reassured by his physicians saying daily: "There +was not much danger of her giving you the disease in its first stage. +She is probably dead by this time." + +But the wheels of life seemed to grow heavier and more clogged every +day. He was fast getting down to the dregs, and now almost every +pleasure palled upon his jaded taste. At one time it seemed that Zell +might so infuse her vigorous young life and vivacity into his waning +years that his last days would be his best. And this might have been +the case, if he had reformed his evil life and dealt with her as a +true man. In her strong and exceptional love, considering their +difference in age, there were great possibilities of good for both. +But he had foully perverted the last best gift of his life, and even +his blunted moral sense was awakening to the truth. + +"Curse it all," he muttered, late one morning, "perhaps I had better +have married her. I hoped so much from her, and she has been nothing +but a source of trouble and danger. I wonder if she is dead." + +He had been out very late the night before, and had played heavily, +but not with his usual skill. He had kept muttering grim oaths against +his luck, and drinking deeper and deeper till a friend had half forced +him away. And now, much shaken by the night's debauch, depressed by +his heavy losses, conscience, that crouches like a tiger in every bad +man's soul, and waits to rush from its lair and rend, in the long +hours--the long _eternity_ of weakness and memory--already had its +fangs in his guilty heart. + +Long and bitterly he thought, with a frown resting like night on his +heavy brow. The servant brought him a dainty breakfast, but he +sullenly motioned it away. He had wronged his digestive powers so +greatly the night before that even brandy was repugnant to him, and he +leaned heavily and wearily back in his chair, a prey to remorse. + +He was in just the right physical condition to take a contagious +disease. + +There was a knock at the door, and the servant entered, bringing him a +letter, saying, "This was just left here for ye, sir." + +"A dun," thought he, languidly, and he laid it unopened on the stand +beside him. + +It was; and from one whom he owed a reparation he could never make, +though he paid with his life. + +With his eyes closed, he still leaned back in a dull, painful +lethargy. A faint, disagreeable odor gradually pervaded the room, and +at last attracted his attention. The luxurious sybarite could not help +the stings of conscience, the odor he might. He grew restless, and +looked around. + +Zell's letter caught his attention. "Might as well see who it's from," +he muttered. Weakness, pain, and emotion had so changed Zell's +familiar hand, that he did not recognize it. + +But, as he opened and read, his eyes dilated with horror. It seemed +like a dead hand grasping him out of the darkness. But a dreadful +fascination compelled him to read every line, and re-read them, till +they seemed burned into his memory. At last, by a desperate effort, he +broke the strong spell her words had placed upon him, and, starting +up, exclaimed: + +"Go to her, in that pest-house! I would see her dead a thousand times +first. I hope she is dead, for she is the torment of my life. What is +it that smells so queer?" + +His eyes again rested on the letter. A suspicion crossed his mind. He +carried the letter to his nose, and then started violently, uttering +awful oaths. + +"She has sent the contagion directly to me," he groaned, and he threw +poor Zell's appeal on the grate. It burned with a faint, sickly odor. +Then, as the day was raw and windy, a sudden gust down the chimney +blew it all out into the room, and scattered it in ashes, like Zell's +hopes, around his feet. + +A superstitious horror that made his flesh creep and hair rise took +possession of him, and hastily gathering a few necessary things, he +rushed out into the chill air, and made his way to a large hotel. He +wanted to be in a crowd. He wanted the hard, material world's noise +and bustle around him. He wanted to hear men talking about gold and +stocks, and the gossip of the town-anything that would make living on +seem a natural, possible matter of course. + +But men's voices sounded strange and unfamiliar, and the real world +seemed like that which mocks us in our dreams. Mingling with all he +saw and heard were Zell's despairing looks and Zell's despairing +words. He wrapped himself in his great coat, he drank frequent and +fiery potations, he hovered around the registers, but nothing could +take away the chill at his heart. He tossed feverishly all night. His +sudden exposure to the raw wind in his heated, excited condition +caused a severe cold. But he would not give up. He dared not stay +alone in his room, and so crept down to the public haunts of the +hotel. But his flushed cheeks and strange manner attracted attention. +As the days passed, he grew worse, and the proprietor of the house +said: + +"You are ill, you must go to bed." + +But he would not. There was nothing that he seemed to dread so much as +being alone. But the guests began to grow afraid of him. There was +general and widespread fear of the smallpox in the city, and for some +reason it began to be associated with his illness. As the suspicion +was whispered around, all shrank from him. The proprietor had him +examined at once by a physician. It was the fatal fourteenth day, and +the dreaded symptoms were apparent. + +"Have you no friends, no home to which you can go?" he was asked. + +"No," he groaned, while the thought pierced his soul. "She would have +made me one and taken care of me in it." But he pleaded, "For God's +sake, don't send me away." + +"I must," said the proprietor, frightened himself. "The law requires +it, and your presence here would empty my house in an hour." + +So, in the dusk, like poor Zell, he was smuggled down a back stairway, +and sent to the "pest-house" also, he groaning and crying with terror +all the way. + +Zell did not die. Her vigorous constitution rallied, and she rapidly +regained strength. But with strength and power of thought came the +certainty to her mind of Van Barn's utter and final abandonment of +her. She felt that all the world would now be against her, and that +she would be driven from every safe and pleasant path. The thought of +taking her shame to her home was a horror to her, and she felt sure +that Edith would spurn her from the door. At first she wept bitterly +and despairingly, and wished she had died. But gradually she grew +hard, reckless, and cruel under her wrong, and her every thought of +Van Bam was a curse. + +The woman who helped her to write the letter greatly startled her one +day by saying: + +"There's a man in the men's ward who in his ravin' speaks of you." + +"Could he, in just retribution, have been sent here also?" she +thought. Pleading relationship, she was admitted to see him. He +shuddered as he saw her advancing, with stony face and eyes in which +glared relentless hate. + +"Curse you!" he muttered, feebly, with his parched lips. "Go away, +living or dead, I know not which you are; but I know it was through +you I came here!" + +Her only answer was a mocking smile. + +The doctor came and examined his symptoms. + +"Will he get well?" she asked, following him away a short distance. + +"No," said the physician. "He will die." + +Her cheek blanched for a moment; but from her eyes glowed a deadly +gleam of satisfaction. + +"What did he say?" whispered Van Dam. + +"He says you will die," she answered, in a stony voice. "You see, I am +better than you were. You would not come to me for even one poor +moment. You left me to die alone; but I will stay and watch with you." + +"Oh, go away!" groaned Van Dam. + +"I couldn't be so heartless," she said, in a mocking tone. "You need +dying consolation, I want to tell you, Guilliam, what was in my mind +the night I left all for you. I did doubt you a little. That is where +I sinned; but I shall only suffer for that through all eternity," she +said, with a reckless laugh that chilled his soul. "But then, I hoped, +I felt almost sure, you would marry me; and, oh, what a heaven of a +home I purposed to make you! If you had only let even a magistrate +say, 'I pronounce you man and wife,' I would have been your patient +slave. I would have kissed away even your headaches, and had you ten +contagions, I would not have left you. I would have taken care of you +and nursed you back to life." + +"Go away!" groaned Van Dam, with more energy. + +"Guilliam," she said, taking his hand, which shuddered at her touch, +"we might have had a happy little home by this time. We might have +learned to live a good life in this world and have prepared for a +better one in the next. Little children might have put their soft arms +around your neck, and with their innocent kisses banished the memory +and the power of the evil past. Oh," she gasped, "how happy we might +have been, and mother, Edith, and Laura would have smiled upon us. But +what is now our condition?" she said, bitterly, her grip upon his hand +becoming hard and fierce. "You have made me a tigress. I must cower +and hide through life like a wild beast in a jungle. And you are dying +and going to hell," she hissed in his ear, "and by and by, when I get +to be an old ugly hag, I will come and torment you there forever and +forever." + +"Curse you, go away," shrieked the terror-stricken man. + +An attendant hastened to the spot; Zell was standing at the foot of +the cot, glaring at him. + +"I thought you was a relation of his'n," said the man, roughly. + +"So I am," said Zell, sternly. "As the one stung is related to the +viper that stung him," and with a withering look she passed away. + +That night Van Dam died. + +In process of time Zell was turned adrift in the city. She applied +vainly at stores and shops for a situation. She had no good clothes, +and appearances were against her. She had a very little money in her +portemonnaie when she was taken to the hospital. This was given to her +on leaving, and she made it go as far as possible. At last she went to +an intelligence office and sat among the others, who looked +suspiciously at her. They instinctively felt that she was not of their +sort. + +"What can you do?" was the frequent question. + +She did not know how to do a single thing, but thought that perhaps +the position of waitress would be the easiest. + +"Where are your references?" + +It was her one thought and effort to conceal all reference to the +past. At last the proprietor in pity sent her to a lady who had told +him to supply her with a waitress; the place was in Brooklyn, and Zell +was glad, for she had less fear there of seeing any one she knew. + +The lady scolded bitterly about such an ignoramus being sent to her, +but Zell seemed so patient and willing that she decided to try her. +Zell gave her whole soul to the work, and though the place was a hard +one, would have eventually learned to fill it. The family were a +little surprised sometimes at her graceful movements, and the quick +gleams of intelligence in her large eyes as some remark was made +naturally beyond me in her sphere. One day they were trying to recall, +while at the table, the name of a famous singer at the opera. Before +she thought, the name was almost out of her lips. The poor girl tried +to disguise herself by assuming, as well as she could, the stolid, +stupid manner of those who usually blunder about our homes. + +All might have gone well, and she have gained an honest livelihood, +had not an unforeseen circumstance revealed her past life. Those who +have done wrong are never safe. At the most unexpected time, and in +the most unexpected way, their sin may stand out before all and blast +them, + +Zell's mistress had told her to make a little extra preparation for +she expected a gentleman to dine that evening. With some growing pride +and interest in her work, she had done her best, and even her mistress +said: + +"Jane" (her assumed name), "you are improving," and a gleam of +something like hope and pleasure shot across the poor child's face. A +passionate sigh came up from her heart-- + +"Oh, I will try to do right if the world will let me." + +But imagine her terror as she saw an old crony of Van Dam's enter the +room. The man recognized her in a moment, and she saw that he did. She +gave him an imploring glance, which he returned by one of cool +contempt. Zell could hardly get through the meal, and her manner +attracted attention. The cold-blooded fellow, whose soul was akin to +that of his dead friend, was considerate enough to his hostess not to +spoil her dinner or rob her of a waitress till it was over. But the +moment they returned to the parlor he told who Zell was, and how she +must have just come from the smallpox hospital. + +The lady (?) was in a frenzy of rage and fear. She rushed down to +where Zell was panting with weakness and emotion, exclaiming: + +"You shameful hussy, how dare you come into a respectable house, after +your loathsome life and loathsome disease?" + +"Hear me," pleaded Zell; "the doctor said there was no danger, and I +want to do what is right." + +"I don't believe a word you say. I wouldn't trust you a minute. How +much you have stolen now it will be hard to tell, and I shouldn't +wonder if we all had the smallpox. Leave the house instantly." + +"Oh, please give me a chance," cried Zell, on her knees. "Indeed, I am +honest. I'll work for you for nothing, if you will let me stay." + +"Leave instantly, or I will call for a policeman." + +"Then pay me my week's wages," sobbed Zell. + +"I won't pay you a cent, you brazen creature. You didn't know how to +do anything, and have been a torment ever since you came. I might have +known there was something wrong. Now go, take your old, pest-infected +rags out of my house, or I will have you sent to where you properly +belong. Thank Heaven, I have found you out." + +A sudden change came over Zell. She sprang up, and a scowl black as +night darkened her face. + +"What has Heaven to do with your sending a poor girl out into the +night, I would like to know?" she asked, in a harsh, grating voice; "I +wouldn't do it. Therefore, I am better than you are. Heaven has +nothing to do with either you or me;" and she looked so dark and +dangerous that her mistress was frightened, and ran up to the parlor, +exclaiming: + +"She's an awful creature. I'm afraid of her." + +Then that manly being, her husband, towered up in his wrath, saying, +majestically, "I guess I'm master in my own house yet." + +He showed poor Zell the door. Her laugh rang out recklessly, as she +called-- + +"Good-by. May the pleasant thought that you have sent one more soul to +perdition lull you to sweet sleep." + +But, for some reason, it did not. When they became cool enough to +think it over, they admitted that perhaps they had been a "little +hasty." + +They had a daughter of about Zell's age. It would be a little hard if +any one should treat her so. + +Zell had scarcely more than enough to pay her way to New York. It +seemed that people ought to stretch out their hands to shield her, but +they only jostled her in their haste. As she stood, with her bundle, +in the ferry entrance on the New York side, undecided where to go, a +man ran against her in his hurry. + +"Get out of the way," he said, irritably. + +She moved out one side into the darkness, and with a pallid face said: + +"Yes, it has come to this. I must 'get out of the way' of all decent +people. There is the river on one side. There are the streets on the +other. Which shall it be?" + +"Oh! it was pitiful, + Near a whole city full," + +that no hand was stretched to her aid. + +She shuddered. "I can't, I dare not die yet. It must be a little +easier here than there, where he is." + +Her face became like stone. She went straight to a liquor saloon, and +drank deep of that spirit that Shakespeare called "devil," in order to +drown thought, fear, memory--every vestige of the woman. + +Then--the depths of the gulf that Laura shrank from with a dread +stronger than her love of life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +EDITH BRINGS THE WANDERER HOME + + + +Mrs. Lacey and Arden, at last, in the stress of their poverty, gave +their consent that Rose should go to the city and try to find +employment in a store as a shop-girl. Mrs. Glibe, her dressmaking +friend, went with her, and though they could obtain no situation the +first day, one of Mrs. Glibe's acquaintances directed Rose where she +could find a respectable boarding-house, from which, as her home, she +could continue her inquiries. Leaving her there, Mrs. Glibe returned. + +Rose, with a hope and courage not easily dampened, continued her +search the next day, and for several days following. The fall trade +had not fairly commenced, and there seemed no demand for more help. +She had thirty dollars with which to start life, but a week of +idleness took seven of this. + +At last her fine appearance and sprightly manner induced the +proprietor of a large establishment to put her in the place of a girl +discharged that day, with the wages of six dollars a week. + +"We give but three or four, as a general thing, to beginners," he +said. + +Rose was grateful for the place, and yet almost dismayed at the +prospect before her. How could she live on six dollars? The bright- +colored dreams of city life were fast melting away before the hard, +and in some instances revolting, facts of her experience. She could +have obtained situations in two or three instances at better wages, if +she had assented to conditions that sent her hastily into the street +with burning blushes and indignant tears. She knew the great city was +full of wickedness, but this rude contact with it appalled her. + +After finding what she had to live on, she exchanged her somewhat +comfortable room, where she could have a fire, for a cold, cheerless +attic closet in the same house. "As I learn the business, they will +give more," she thought, and the idea of going home penniless, to be +laughed at by Mrs. Glibe, Miss Klip, and others was almost as bitter a +prospect to her proud spirit as being a burden to her impoverished +family, and she resolved to submit to every hardship rather than do +it. By taking the attic room she reduced her board to five dollars a +week. + +"You can't get it for less, unless you go to a very common sort of a +place," said her landlady. "My house is respectable, and people must +pay a little for that." + +In view of this fact, Rose determined to stay, if possible, for she +was realizing more every day how unsheltered and tempted she was. + +Her fresh blond face, her breezy manner, and her wind-shaken curls +made many turn to look after her. Like some others of her sex, perhaps +she had no dislike for admiration, but in Rose's position it was often +shown by looks, manner, and even words, that, however she resented +them, followed and persecuted her. + +As she grew to know her fellow-workers better, her heart sickened in +disgust at the conversation and the evident life of many of them, and +they often laughed immoderately at her greenness. + +Alas for the fancied superiority of these knowing girls! They laughed +at Rose because she was so much more like what God meant a woman +should be than they. A weak-minded, shallow girl would have succumbed +to their ridicule, and soon have become like them, but high-spirited +Rose only despised them, and gradually sought out and found some +companionship with those of the better sort in the large store. But +there seemed so much hollowness and falsehood on every side that she +hardly knew whom to trust. + +Poor Rose was quite sick of making a career for herself alone in the +city, and her money was getting very low. Shop life was hard on +clothes, and she was compelled by the rules of the store to dress +well, and was only too fond of dress herself. So, instead of getting +money ahead, she at last was reduced to her wages as support, and +nothing was said of their being raised, and she was advised to say +nothing about any increase. Then she had a week's sickness, and this +brought her in debt to her landlady. + +Several times during her evening walks home Rose noticed a dark face +and two vivid black eyes, that seemed watching her; but as soon as +observed, the face vanished. It haunted her with its suggestion of +some one seen before. + +She went back to her work too soon after her illness, and had a +relapse. Her respectable landlady was a woman of system and rules. +From long experience, she foresaw that her poor lodger would grow only +more and more deeply in her debt. Perhaps we can hardly blame her. It +was by no easy effort that she made ends meet as it was. She had an +application for Rose's little room from one who gave more prospect of +being able to pay, so she quietly told the poor girl to vacate it. +Rose pleaded to stay, but the woman was inexorable. She had passed +through such scenes so often that they had become only one of the +disagreeable phases of her business. + +"Why, child," she said, "if I did not live up to my rule in this +respect, I'd soon be out of house and home myself. You can leave your +things here till you find some other place." + +So poor Rose, weak through her sickness, more weak through terror, +found herself out in the streets of the great city, utterly penniless. +She was so unfamiliar with it that she did not know where to go, or to +whom to apply. It was her purpose to find a cheaper boarding-house. +She went down toward the meaner and poorer part of the city, and +stopped at the low stoop of a house where there was a sign, "Rooms to +let." + +She was about to enter, when a hand was laid sharply on her arm, and +some one said: + +"Don't go there. Come with me, quick!" + +"Who are you?" asked Rose, startled and trembling. + +"One who can help you now, whatever I am," was the answer. "I know you +well, and all about you. You are Hose Lacey, and you did live in +Pushton. Come with me, quick, and I will take you to a Christian lady +whom you can trust. Come." + +Rose, in her trouble and perplexity, concluded to follow her. They +soon made their way to quite a respectable street, and rang the bell +at the door of a plain, comfortable-appearing house. + +A cheery, stout, middle-aged lady opened it. She looked at Rose's new +friend, and reproachfully shook her finger at her, saying: + +"Naughty Zell, why did you leave the Home?" + +"Because I am possessed by a restless devil," was the strange answer. +"Besides, I can do more good in the streets than there. I have just +saved her" (pointing to Rose, who at once surmised that this was Zell +Allen, though so changed that she would not have known her). "Now," +continued Zell, thrusting some money into Rose's hand, "take this and +go home at once. Tell her, Mrs. Ranger, that this city is no place for +her." + +"If you have friends and a home to go to, it's the very best thing you +can do," said the lady. + +"But my friends are poor," sobbed Rose. + +"No matter, go to them," said Zell, almost fiercely. "I tell you there +is no place for you here, unless you wish to go to perdition. Go home, +where you are known. Scrub, delve, do anything rather than stay here. +Your big brother can and will take care of you, though he does look so +cross." + +"She is right, my child; you had better go at once," said the lady, +decidedly. + +"Who are you?" asked Rose of the latter speaker, with some curiosity. + +"I am a city missionary," answered the lady, quietly, "and it is my +business to help such poor girls as you are. I say to you from full +knowledge, and in all sincerity, to go home is the very best thing +that you can do." + +"But why is there not a chance for a poor, well-meaning girl to earn +an honest living in this great city?" + +"Thousands are earning such a living, but there is not one chance in a +hundred for you." + +"Why?" asked Rose, hotly, + +"Do you see all these houses? They are full of people," continued Mrs. +Ranger, "and some of them contain many families. In these families +there are thousands of girls who have a home, a shelter, and +protectors here in the city. They have society in relatives and +neighbors. They have no board to pay, and fathers and mothers, +brothers and sisters, helping support them. They put all their +earnings into a common fund, and it supports the family. Such girls +can afford, and will work for two, three, four, and five dollars a +week. All that they earn makes the burden so much less on the father, +who otherwise would have supported them in idleness. Now, a homeless +stranger in the city must pay board, and therefore they can't compete +with those who live here. Wages are kept too low. Not one in a +hundred, situated as you are, can earn enough to pay board and dress +as they are required to in the fashionable stores. Have you been +able?" + +"No," groaned Rose. "I am in debt to my landlady now, and I had some +money to start with." + +"There it is," said Mrs. Ranger, sadly; "the same old story." + +"But these stores ought to pay more," said Rose, indignantly. + +"They will only pay for labor, as for everything else, the market +price, and that averages but six dollars a week, and more are working +for from three to five than for six. As I told you, there are +thousands of girls living in the city glad to get a chance at any +price." + +Rose gave a weary, discouraged sigh and said, "I fear you are right, I +must go home. Indeed, after what has happened I hardly dare stay." + +"Go," said Zell, "as if you were leaving Sodom, and don't look back." +Then she asked, with a wistful, hungry look, "Have you see any of--?" +She stopped--she could not speak the names of her kindred. + +"Yes," said Rose, gently. (Yesterday she would have stood coldly aloof +from Zell. To-day she was very grateful and full of sympathy.) "I know +they are well. They were all sick after--after you went away. But they +got well again, and (lowering her voice) Edith prays for you night and +day." + +"Oh! oh!" sobbed Zell, "this is torment, this is to see the heaven I +cannot enter," and she dashed away. + +"Poor child!" said Mrs. Ranger, "there's an angel in her yet if I only +knew how to bring it out. I may see her to-morrow, and I may not for +weeks. Take the money she left with you, and here is some more. It may +help her, to think that she helped you. And now, my dear, let me see +you safely on your way home." + +That night the stage left Rose at the poor dilapidated little +farmhouse, and in her mother's close embrace she felt the blessedness +of the home shelter, however poor, and the protecting love of kindred, +however plain. + +"Arden is away," said the quiet woman of few words. "He is home only +twice a month. He has a job of cutting and carting wood a good way +from here. We are so poor this winter he had to take this chance. Your +father is doing better. I hope for him, though with fear and +trembling." + +Then Rose told her mother her experience and how she had been saved by +Zell, and the poor woman clasped her daughter to her breast again and +again, and with streaming eyes raised toward heaven, poured out her +gratitude to God. + +"Rose," said she, with a shudder, "if I had not prayed so for you +night and day, perhaps you would not have found such friends in your +time of need. Oh! let us both pray for that poor lost one, that she +may be saved also." + +From this day forth Rose began to pray the true prayer of pity, and +then the true prayer of a personal faith. The rude, evil world had +shown her her own and others' need, in a way that made her feel that +she wanted the Heavenly Father's care. + +In other respects she took up her life for a time where she had left +it a few months before. + +Edith was deeply moved at Rose's story, and Zell's wild, wayward steps +were followed by prayers, as by a throng of reclaiming angels. + +"I would go and bring her home in a moment, if I only knew where to +find her," said Edith. + +"Mrs. Ranger said she would write as soon as there was any chance of +your doing so," said Rose. + +About the middle of January a letter came to Edith as follows: + +"Miss Edith Allen--Your sister, Zell, is in Bellevue Hospital, +Ward ---. Come quickly; she is very ill." + +Edith took the earliest train, and was soon following an attendant, +with eager steps, down the long ward. They came to a dark-eyed girl +that was evidently dying, and Edith closed her eyes with a chill of +fear. A second glance showed that it was not Zell, and a little +further on she saw the face of her sister, but so changed! Oh! the +havoc that sin and wretchedness had made in that beautiful creature +during a few short months! She was in a state of unconscious, +muttering delirium, and Edith showered kisses on the poor, parched +lips; her tears fell like rain on the thin, flushed face. Zell +suddenly cried, with the girlish voice of old: + +"Hurrah, hurrah! books to the shades; no more teachers and tyrants for +me." + +She was living over the old life, with its old, fatal tendencies. + +Edith sat down, and sobbed as if her heart would break. Unnoticed, a +stout, elderly lady was regarding her with eyes wet with sympathy. As +Edith's grief subsided somewhat she laid her hand on the poor girl's +shoulder, saying: + +"My child, I feel very sorry for you. For some reason I can't pass on +and leave you alone in your sorrow, though we are total strangers. +Your trouble gives you a sacred claim upon me. What can I do for you?" + +Edith looked up through her tears, and saw a kind, motherly face, with +a halo of gray curls around it. With woman's intuition she trusted her +instantly, and, with another rush of tears, said: + +"This is--my--poor lost-sister. I've--just found her." + +"Ah!" said the lady, significantly, "God pity you both." + +"Were it not--for Him," sobbed Edith, with her hand upon her aching +heart, "I believe--I should die." + +The lady sat down by her, and took her hand, saying, "I will stay with +you, dear, till you feel better." + +Gradually and delicately she drew from Edith her story, and her large +heart yearned over the two girls in the sincerest sympathy. + +"I was not personally acquainted with your father and mother, but I +know well who they were," she said. "And now, my child, you cannot +remain here much longer; where are you going to stay?" + +"I haven't thought," said Edith, sadly. + +"I have," replied the lady, heartily; "I am going to take you home +with me. We don't live very far away, and you can come and see your +sister as often as you choose, within the limits of the rules." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Edith, deprecatingly, "I am not fit--I have no claim." + +"My child," said the lady, gently, "don't you remember what our Master +said, 'I was a stranger and ye took me in'? Is He not fit to enter my +house? Has He no claim? In taking you home I am taking Him home, and +so I shall be happy and honored in your presence. Moreover, my dear, +from what I have seen and heard, I am sure I shall love you for your +own sake." + +Edith looked at her through grateful tears, and said, "It has seemed +to me that Jesus has been comforting me all the time through your +lips. How beautiful Christianity is, when it is lived out. I will go +to your house as if it were His." + +Then she turned and pressed a loving kiss on Zell's unconscious face, +but her wonder was past words when the lady stooped down also, and +kissed the "woman which was a sinner." She seized her hand with both +of hers and faltered: + +"You don't despise and shrink from her, then?" + +"Despise her! no," said the noble woman. "I have never been tempted as +this poor child has. God does not despise her. What am I?" + +From that moment Edith could have kissed her feet, and feeling that +God had sent His angel to take care of her, she followed the lady from +the hospital. A plain but elegantly-liveried carriage was waiting, and +they were driven rapidly to one of the stateliest palaces on Fifth +Avenue. As they crossed the marble threshold, the lady turned and +said: + +"Pardon me, my dear, my name is Mrs. Hart. This is your home now as +truly as mine while you are with us," and Edith was shown to a room +replete with luxurious comfort, and told to rest till the six o'clock +dinner. + +With some timidity and fear she came down to meet the others. As she +entered she saw a portly man standing on the rug before the glowing +grate, with a shock of white hair, and a genial, kindly face. + +"My husband," said Mrs. Hart, "this is our new friend, Miss Edith +Allen. You knew her father well in business, I am sure." + +"Of course I did," said the old gentleman, taking Edith's hand in both +of his, "and a fine business man he was, too. You are welcome to our +home, Miss Edith. Look here, mother," he said, turning to his wife +with a quizzical look, and still keeping hold of Edith's hand, "you +didn't bring home an 'angel unawares' this time. I say, wife, you +won't be jealous if I take a kiss now, will you--a sort of scriptural +kiss, you know?" and he gave Edith a hearty smack that broke the ice +between them completely. + +With a face like a peony, Edith said, earnestly, "I am sure the real +angels throng your home." + +"Hope they do," said Mr. Hart, cheerily. "My old lady there is the +best one I have seen yet, but I am ready for all the rest. Here come +some of them," he added, as his daughters entered, and to each one he +gave a hearty kiss, counting, "one, two, three, four, five--now, 'all +present or accounted for?'" + +"Yes," said his wife, laughing. + +"Dinner, then," and after the young ladies had greeted Edith most +cordially, he gave her his arm, as if she had been a duchess, and +escorted her to the dining-room. After being seated, they bowed their +heads in quiet reverence, and the old man, with the voice and manner +of a child speaking to a father, thanked God for His mercies, and +invoked His blessing. + +The table-talk was genial and wholesome, with now and then a sparkle +of wit, or a broad gleam of humor. + +"My good wife there, Miss Edith," said Mr. Hart, with a twinkle in his +eye, "is a very sly old lady. If she does wear spectacles, she sees +with great discrimination, or else the world is growing so full of +interesting saints and sinners, that I am quite in hopes of it. Every +day she has a new story about some very good person, or some very bad +person becoming good. If you go on this way much longer, mother, the +millennium will commence before the doctors of divinity are ready for +it." + +"My dear," said Mrs. Hart, with a comic aside to Edith, "my husband +has never got over being a boy. When he will become old enough to +sober down, I am sure I can't tell." + +"What have I to sober me, with all these happy faces around, I should +like to know?" was the hearty retort. "I am having a better time every +day, and mean to go on so _ad infinitum_. You're a good one to talk +about sobering down, when you laugh more than any of these +youngsters." + +"Well," said his wife, her substantial form quivering with merriment, +"it's because you make me." + +During the meal Edith had time to observe the young ladies more +closely. They were fine-looking, and one or two of them really +beautiful. Two of them were in early girlhood yet, and there was not a +vestige of the vanity and affectation often seen in those of their +position. They evidently had wide diversities of character, and +faults, but there were the simplicity and sincerity about them which +make the difference between a chaste piece of marble and a painted +block of wood. She saw about her a house as rich and costly in its +appointments as her own old home had been, but it was not so crowded +or pronounced in its furnishing and decoration. There were fewer +pictures, but finer ones; and in all matters of art, French taste was +not prominent, as had been the case in her home. + +The next day she sat by unconscious Zell as long as was permitted, and +wrote fully to Laura. + +The dark-eyed girl that seemed dying the day before was gone. + +"Did she die?" she asked of an attendant. + +"Yes." + +"What did they do with her?" + +"Buried her in Potter's Field." + +Edith shuddered. "It would have been Zell's end," she thought, "if I +hadn't found her, and she had died here alone." + +That evening Mrs. Hart, as they all sat in her own private parlor, +said to her daughters: + +"Girls, away with you. I can't move a step without stumbling over one +of you. You are always crowding into my sanctum, as if there was not +an inch of room for you anywhere else. Vanish. I want to talk to +Edith." + +"It's your own fault that we crowd in here, mother," said the eldest. +"You are the loadstone that draws us." + +"I'll get a lot of stones to throw at you and drive you out with," +said the old lady, with mock severity. + +The youngest daughter precipitated herself on her mother's neck, +exclaiming: + +"Wouldn't that be fun, to see jolly old mother throwing stones at us. +She would wrap them in eider-down first." + +"Scamper; the whole bevy of you," said the old lady, laughing; and +Edith, with a sigh, contrasted this "mother's room" with the one which +she and her sisters shunned as the place where their "teeth were set +on edge." + +"My dear," said Mrs. Hart, her face becoming grave and troubled, +"there is one thing in my Christian work that discourages me. We +reclaim so few of the poor girls that have gone astray. I understand, +from Mrs. Ranger, that your sister was at the Home, but that she left +it. How can we accomplish more? We do everything we can for them." + +"I don't think earthly remedies can meet their case," said Edith, in a +low tone. + +"I agree with you," said Mrs. Hart, earnestly, "but we do give them +religious instruction." + +"I don't think religious instruction is sufficient," Edith answered. +"They need a Saviour." + +"But we do tell them about Jesus." + +"Not always in a way that they understand, I fear," said Edith, sadly. +"I have heard people tell about Him as they would about Socrates, or +Moses, or Paul. We don't need facts about Him so much as Jesus +Himself. In olden times people did not go to their sick and troubled +friends and tell them that Jesus was in Capernaum, and that He was a +great deliverer. They brought the poor, helpless creatures right to +Him. They laid them right at the feet of a personal Saviour, and He +helped them. Do we do this? I have thought a great deal about it," +continued Edith, "and it seems to me that more associate the ideas of +duty, restraint, and almost impossible effort with Him, than the ideas +of help and sympathy. It was so with me, I know, at first." + +"Perhaps you are right," said Mrs. Hart thoughtfully. "The poor +creatures to whom I referred seemed more afraid of God than anything +else." + +"And yet, of all that ever lived, Jesus was the most tender toward +them--the most ready to forgive and save. Believe me, Mrs. Hart, there +was more gospel in the kiss you gave my sister--there was more of +Jesus Christ in it, than in all the sermons ever written, and I am +sure that if she had been conscious, it would have saved her. They +must, as it were, _feel_ the hand of love and power that lifted +Peter out of the ingulfing waves. The idea of duty and sturdy self- +restraint is perhaps too much emphasized, while they, poor things, are +weak as water. They are so 'lost' that He must just 'seek and save' +them, as He said--lift them up--keep them up almost in spite of +themselves. Saved--that is the word, as the limp, helpless form is +dragged out of danger. On account of my sister I have thought a good +deal about this subject, and there seems to me to be no remedy for +this class, save in the merciful, patient, personal Saviour. He had +wonderful power over them when He was on earth, and He would have the +same now, if His people could make them understand Him." + +"I think few of us understand this personal Saviour ourselves as we +ought," said Mrs. Hart, somewhat unveiling her own experience. "The +Romish Church puts the Virgin, saints, penances, and I know not what, +between the sinner and Jesus, and we put catechisms, doctrines, and a +great mass of truth about them, between Him and us. I doubt whether +many of us, like the beloved disciple, have leaned our heads on His +heart of love, and felt its throbs. Too much of the time He seems in +Heaven to me, not here." + +"I never had much religious instruction," said Edith, simply. "I found +Him in the New Testament, as people of old found Him in Palestine, and +I went to Him, just as I was, and He has been such a Friend and +Helper. He lets me sit at His feet like Mary, and the words He spoke +seem said directly to poor little me." + +Wistful tears came into Mrs. Hart's eyes, and she kissed Edith, +saying: + +"I have been a Christian forty years, my child, but you are nearer to +Him than I am. Stay close to His side. This talk has done me more good +than I imagined possible." + +"If I seem nearer," said Edith, gently, "isn't it, perhaps, because I +am weaker than you are? His 'sheep follow' Him, but isn't there some +place in the Bible about his 'carrying the lambs in His bosom'? I +think we shall find at last that He was nearer to us all than we +thought, and that His arm of love was around us all the time." + +In a sudden, strong impulse, Mrs. Hart embraced Edith, and, looking +upward, exclaimed: + +"Truly 'Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast +revealed them unto babes.' As my husband said, I am entertaining a +good angel." + +The physician gave Edith great encouragement about Zell, and told her +that in two weeks he thought she might be moved. The fever was taking +a light form. + +One evening, after listening to some superb music from Annie, the +second daughter, between whom and Edith quite an affinity seemed to +develop itself, the latter said: + +"How finely you play! I think you are wonderful for an amateur." + +"I am not an amateur," replied Annie, laughing. "Music is my +profession." + +"I don't understand," said Edith. + +"Father has made me study music as a science," explained Annie." I +could teach it to-morrow. All of us girls are to have a profession. +Ella, my eldest sister, is studying drawing and painting. Here is a +portfolio of her sketches." + +Even Edith's unskilled eyes could see that she had made great +proficiency. + +"Ella could teach drawing and coloring at once," continued Annie, "for +she has studied the rules and principles very carefully, and given +great attention to the rudiments of art, instead of having a teacher +help her paint a few show-pictures. But I know very little about it, +for I haven't much taste that way. Father has us educated according to +our tastes; that is, if we show a little talent for any one thing, he +has us try to perfect ourselves in that one thing. Julia is the +linguist, and can jabber French and German like natives. Father also +insisted on our being taught the common English branches very +thoroughly, and he says he could get us situations to teach within a +month, if it were necessary." + +Edith sighed deeply as she thought how superficial their education had +been, but she said rather slyly to Annie, "But you are engaged. I +think your husband will veto the music-teaching." + +"Oh, well," said Annie, laughing, "Walter may fail, or get sick, or +something may happen. So you see we shouldn't have to go to the poor- +house. Besides, there's a sort of satisfaction in knowing one thing +pretty well. But the half is not told you, and I suppose you will +think father and mother queer people; indeed, most of our friends do. +For mother has had a milliner come to the house, and a dressmaker, and +a hair-dresser, and whatever we have any knack at she has made us +learn well, some one thing, and some another. Wouldn't I like to dress +your long hair!" continued the light-hearted girl. "I would make you +so bewitching that you would break a dozen hearts in one evening. Then +mother has taught us how to cook, and to make bread and cake and +preserves, and Ella and I have to take turns in keeping house, and +marketing, and keeping account of the living expenses. The rest of the +girls are at school yet. Mother says she is not going to palm off any +frauds in her daughters when they get married; and if we only turn out +half as good as she is, our husbands will be lucky men, if I do say +it; and if all of us don't get any, we can take care of ourselves. +Father has been holding you up as an example of what a girl can do, if +she has to make her own way in the world." + +And the sprightly, but sensible, girl would have rattled on +indefinitely, had not Edith fled to her room in an uncontrollable rush +of sorrow over the sad, sad, "It might have been." + +One afternoon Annie came into Edith's room, saying, "I am going to +dress your hair. Yes, I will--now don't say a word, I want to. We +expect two or three friends in--one you'll be glad to see. No, I +won't tell you who it is. It's a surprise." And she flew at Edith's +head, pulled out the hairpins, and went to work with a dexterity and +rapidity that did credit to her training. In a little while she had +crowned Edith with nature's most exquisite coronet. + +A cloud of care seemed to rest on Mr. Hart's brow as they entered the +dining-room, but he banished it instantly, and with the quaint, +stately gallantry of the old school, pretended to be deeply smitten +with Edith's loveliness. And so lovely she appeared that their eyes +continually returned, and rested admiringly on her, till at last the +blushing girl remonstrated: + +"You all keep looking at me so that I feel as if I were the dessert, +and you were going to eat me up pretty soon." + +"I speak for the biggest bite," cried Mr. Hart, and they laughed at +her and petted her so that she said: + +"I feel as if I had known you all ten years." + +But ever and anon, Edith saw traces of the cloud of care that she had +noticed at first. And so did Mrs. Hart, for she said: + +"You have been a little anxious about business lately. Is there +anything new?" + +"No," said Mr. Hart, who, in contrast to Mr. Allen, talked business to +his family; "things are only growing a little worse. There have been +one or two bad failures today. The worst of it all is, there seems a +general lack of confidence. No one knows what is going to happen. One +feels as if in a thunder-shower. The lightning may strike him, and it +may fall somewhere else. But don't worry, good mother, I am as safe as +a man can be. I have a round million in my safe ready for an +emergency." + +The wife knew just where her husband stood that night. + +At nine o'clock, Edith was talking earnestly with Mrs. Ranger, whom +she had expressed a wish to see. There were a few other people present +of the very highest social standing, and intimate friends of the +family, for her kind entertainers would not expose her to any strange +and unsympathetic eyes. Annie was flitting about, the very spirit of +innocent mischief and match-making, gloating over the pleasure she +expected to give Edith. The bell rang, and a moment later she +marshalled in Gus Elliot, as handsome and exquisitely dressed as ever. +He was as much in the dark as to whom he should see as Edith. Some one +had told Annie of his former devotedness to Edith, and so she +innocently meant to do both a kindness. Having a slight acquaintance +with Elliot, as a general society man, she invited him this evening to +"meet an old friend." He gladly accepted, feeling it a great honor to +visit at the Harts'. + +He saw Edith a moment before she observed him, and had time to note +her exquisite beauty. But he turned pale with fear and anxiety in +regard to his reception. + +Then she raised her eyes and saw him. The blood rushed in a hot +torrent to her face, and then left it in extreme pallor. Gus advanced +with all the ease and grace that he could command under the +circumstances, and held out his hand. "She cannot refer to the past +here before them all," he thought. + +But Edith rose slowly, and fixed her large eyes, that glowed like +coals of fire, sternly upon him, and put her hand behind her back. + +All held their breath in awe-struck expectation. She seemed to see +only him and the past, and to forget all the rest. + +"No, sir," she said, in a low, deep voice, that curdled Gus's blood, +"I cannot take your hand. I might in pity, if you were in the depths +of poverty and trouble, as I have been, but not here and thus. Do you +know where my sister is?" + +"No," faltered Gus, his knees trembling under him. + +"She is in Bellevue Hospital. A poor girl was carried thence to +Potter's Field a day or two since. She might have been if I had not +found her. And," continued Edith, with her face darkening like night, +and her tone deepening till it sent a thrill of dread to the hearts of +all present, "_in_ Potter's Field _I_ might now have been if I had +listened to you." + +Gus trembled before her in a way that plainly confirmed her words. + +With a grand dignity she turned to Mrs. Hart, saying, "Please excuse +my absence; I cannot breathe the same air with him," and she was about +to sweep from the parlor like an incensed goddess, when Mr. Hart +sprang up, his eyes blazing with anger, and putting his arm around +Edith, said, sternly: + +"I would shield this dear girl as my own daughter. Leave this house, +and never cross my threshold again." + +Gus slunk away without a word. As the guilty will be at last, he was +"speechless." So, in a moment, when least expecting it, he fell from +his heaven, which was society: for the news of his baseness spread +like wildfire, and within a week every respectable door was closed +against him. + +Is it cynical to say that the well-known and widely-honored Mr. Hart, +in closing his door, had influence as well as Gus's sin, in leading +some to close theirs? Motives in society are a little mixed, +sometimes. + +Mr. Hart went down town the next morning, a little anxious, it is +true, on general principles, but not in the least apprehensive of any +disaster. "I may have to pay out a few hundred thousand," he thought, +"but that won't trouble me." + +But the bolt of financial suspicion was directed toward him; how, he +could not tell. Within half an hour after opening, checks for twelve +hundred thousand were presented at his counter. He telegraphed to his +wife, "A run upon me." Later, "Danger!" Then came the words to the +uptown palace, "Have suspended!" In the afternoon, "The storm will +sweep me bare, but courage, God, and our right hands, will make a +place and a way for us." + +The business community sympathized deeply with Mr. Hart. Hard, cool +men of Wall Street came in, and, with eyes moist with sympathy, wrung +his hand. He stood up through the wild tumult, calm, dignified, +heroic, because conscious of rectitude. + +"The shrinkage in securities will be great, I fear," he said, "but I +think my assets will cover all liabilities. We will give up +everything." + +When he came up home in the evening, he looked worn, and much older +than in the morning, but his wife and daughters seemed to envelop him +in an atmosphere of love and sympathy. They were so strong, cheerful, +hopeful, that they infused their courage into him. Annie ran to the +piano, and played as if inspired, saying to her father: + +"Let every note tell you that we can take care of ourselves, and you +and mother too, if necessary." + +The words were prophetic. The strain had been too great on Mr. Hart. +That night he had a stroke of paralysis and became helpless. But he +had trained his daughters to be the very reverse of helpless, and they +did take care of him with the most devoted love and skilled practical +energy, making the weak, brief remnant of his life not a burden, but a +peaceful evening after a glorious day. They all, except the youngest, +soon found employment, for they brought superior skill and knowledge +to the labor market, and such are ever in demand. Annie soon married +happily, and her younger sisters eventually followed her example. But +Ella, the eldest, remained single; and, though she never became +eminent as an artist, did become a very useful and respected teacher +of art, as studied in our schools for its refining influence. + +To return to Edith, she felt for her kind friends almost as much as if +she were one of the family. + +"Do not feel that you must go away because of what has happened," said +Mrs. Hart. "I am glad to have you with us, for you do us all good. +Indeed, you seem one of us. Stay as long as you can, dear, and God +help us both to bear our burdens." + +"Dear, 'heavy-laden' Mrs. Hart," said Edith, "Jesus will bear the +burdens for us, if we will let Him." + +"Bless you, child, I am sure He sent you to me." + +As Edith entered the ward that day, the attendant said, "She's +herself, miss, at last." + +Edith stole noiselessly to Zell's cot. She was sleeping. Edith sat +down silently and watched for her waking. At last she opened her eyes +and glanced fearfully around. Then she saw Edith, and instantly shrank +and cowered as if expecting a blow. + +"Zell," said Edith, taking the poor, thin hand, "Oh, Zell, don't you +know me?" + +"What are you going to do with me?" asked Zell, in a voice full of +dread. + +"Take you to my home--take you to my heart--take you deeper into my +love than ever before." + +"Edith," said Zell, almost cowering before her words as if they hurt +her, "I am not fit to go home." + +"Oh, Zell, darling," said Edith, tenderly, "God's love does not keep a +debit and credit account with us, neither should we with each other. +Can't you see that I love you?" and she showered kisses on her +sister's now pallid face. + +But Zell acted as if they were a source of pain to her, and she +muttered, "You don't know, you can't know. Don't speak of God to me, I +fear Him unspeakably." + +"I do know all," said Edith, earnestly, "and I love you more fondly +than ever I did before, and God knows and loves you more still." + +"I tell you you don't know," said Zell, almost fiercely. "You can't +know. If you did, you would spit on me and leave me forever. God +knows, and He has doomed me to hell, Edith," she added, in a hoarse +whisper. "I killed him--you know whom. And I promised that after I got +old and ugly I would come and torment him forever. I must keep my +promise." + +Edith wept bitterly. This was worse than delirium. She saw that her +sister's nature was so bruised and perverted, so warped, that she was +almost insane. She slowly rallied back into physical strength, but her +hectic cheek and slight cough indicated the commencement of +consumption. Her mind remained in the same unnatural condition, and +she kept saying to Edith, "You don't know anything about it at all. +You can't know." She would not see Mrs. Hart, and agreed to go home +with Edith only on condition that no one should see or speak with her +outside the family. + +At last the day of departure came. Mrs. Hart said, "You shall take her +to the depot in my carriage. It will be among its last and best uses." + +Edith kissed her kind friend good-by, saying, "God will send his +chariot for you some day, and though you must leave this, your +beautiful home, if you could only have a glimpse into the mansion +preparing for you up there, anticipation would almost banish all +thoughts of present loss." + +"Well, dear," said Mrs. Hart, with a gleam of her old humor, "I hope +your 'mansion' will be next door, for I shall want to see you often +through all eternity." + +Then Edith knelt before Mr. Hart's chair, and the old man's helpless +hands were lifted upon her head, and he looked to heaven for the +blessing he could not speak. + +"Our ways diverge now, but they will all meet again. Home is near to +you," she whispered in his ear as she kissed him good-by. + +The old glad light shone in his eyes, the old cheery smile flitted +across his lips, and thus she left him who had been the great, rich +banker, serene, happy, and rich in a faith that could not be lost in +any financial storm, or destroyed by disease, or enfeebled by age--she +left him waiting as a little child to go home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +EDITH'S GREAT TEMPTATION + + + +Though even Mrs. Allen was tearful and kind in her greeting, and Laura +warm and affectionate in the extreme, old Hannibal's welcome, so +frank, genuine, and innocent, seemed to soften Zell more than any +one's else. + +"You poor, heavenly-minded old fool," she said, with an unwonted tear +in her eye, "you don't know any better." + +Then she seemed to settle down into a dreamy apathy; to sit moping +around in shadowy places. She had a horror of meeting any one, even +Mrs. Lacey and Rose, and would not go out till after night. Edith saw, +more and more clearly, that she was almost insane in her shame and +despair, and that she would be a terrible burden to them all if she +remained in such a condition; but her love and patience did not fail. +They would, had they not been daily fed from heavenly sources. "I must +try to show her Jesus' love through mine," she thought. + +Poor Edith, the great temptation of her life was soon to assail her. +It was aimed at her weakest yet noblest side, her young enthusiasm and +spirit of self-sacrifice for others. And yet, it was but the natural +fruit of woman's helplessness and Mrs. Allen's policy of marrying +one's way out of poverty and difficulty. + +Simon Crowl had ostensibly made a very fair transaction with Edith, +but Simon Crowl was a widower at the time, and on the lookout for a +wife. He was a pretty sharp business man, Crowl was, or he wouldn't +have become so rich in little Pushton, and he at once was satisfied +that Edith, so beautiful, so sensible, would answer. Through the +mortgage he might capture her, as it were, for even his vanity did not +promise him much success in the ordinary ways of love-making. So the +spider spun his web, and unconscious Edith was the poor little fly. +During the summer he watched her closely, but from a distance. During +the autumn and winter he commenced calling, ostensibly on Mrs. Allen, +whom he at once managed to impress with the fact that he was very +rich. Though he brushed up his best coat and manners, that delicate- +nosed lady scented an air and manner very different from what she had +been accustomed to, but she was half-dead with _ennui_, and, after +all, there was something akin between worldly Mrs. Allen and worldly +Mr. Crowl. Then, he was very rich. This had covered a multitude of +sins on the avenue. But, in the miserable poverty of Pushton, it was a +golden mantle of light. Mrs. Allen chafed at privation and want of +delicacies with the increasing persistency of an utterly weak and +selfish nature. She had no faith in Edith's plans, and no faith in +woman's working, and the garden seemed the wildest dream of all. Her +hard, narrow logic, constantly dinned into Edith's ears, discouraged +her, and she began to doubt herself. + +Mr. Crowl (timid lover) had in Edith's absence confirmed his previous +hints, thrown out to Mrs. Allen as feelers, by making a definite +proposition. In brief, he had offered to settle twenty-five thousand +dollars on Edith the day she married him, and to take care of the rest +of the family. + +"I have made enough," he said majestically, "to live the rest of my +life like a gentleman, and this offer is princely, if I say it myself. +You can all ride in your carriage again." Then he added, with his +little black eyes growing hard and cunning, "If your daughter won't +accept my generosity, our relationship becomes merely one of business. +Of course I shall foreclose. Money is scarce here, and I shall +probably be able to buy in the place at half its worth. Seems to me," +he concluded, looking at the case from his valuation of money, "there +is not much room for choice here." + +And Mr. Crowl had been princely--for him. Mrs. Allen thought so, too, +and lent herself to the scheme with all the persistent energy that she +could show in these matters. But, to do her justice, she really +thought she was doing what was best for Edith and all of them. She was +acting in accordance with her lifelong principle of providing for her +family, in the one way she believed in and understood. But sincerity +and singleness of purpose made her all the more dangerous as a +tempter. + +In one of Edith's most discouraged moods she broached the subject and +explained Mr. Crowl's offer, for he, prudent man, had left it to her. + +Edith started violently, and the project was so revolting to her that +she fled from the room. But Mrs. Allen, with her small pertinacity, +kept recurring to it at every opportunity. Though it may seem a little +strange, her mother's action did not so shock Edith as some might +expect; nor did the proposition seem so impossible as it might to some +girls. She had all her life been accustomed, through her mother, to +the idea of marrying for money, and we can get used to almost +anything. + +In March their money was very low. Going to Zell and taking care of +her had involved much additional expense. She found out that her +mother had already accepted and used in part a loan of fifty dollars +from Mr. Crowl. Laura, from the long confinement of the winter, and +from living on fare too coarse and lacking in nutrition for her +delicate organization, was growing very feeble. Zell seemed in the +first stages of consumption, and would soon be a sick, helpless +burden. The chill of dread grew stronger at Edith's heart. + +"Oh, can it be possible that I shall be driven to it!" she often +groaned; and she now saw, as poor Laura said, "the black hand in the +dark pushing her down." To her surprise her thoughts kept reverting to +Arden Lacey. + +"What will he think of me if I do this?" she thought, with intense +bitterness. "He will tell me I was not worthy of his friendship, much +less of his love--that I deceived him;" and the thought of Arden, +after all, perhaps, had the most weight in restraining her from the +fatal step. For then, to her perverted sense of duty, this marriage +began to seem like an heroic self-sacrifice. + +She had seen little of Arden since her return. He was kind and +respectful as ever, outwardly, but she saw in his deep blue eyes that +she was the divinity that he still worshipped with unfaltering +devotion, and as she once smiled at the idea of being set up as an +idol in his heart, she now began unspeakably to dread falling from her +pedestal. + +One dreary day, the last of March, when sleet and rain were pouring +steadily down, and Laura was sick in her bed, and Zell moping with her +hacking cough over the fire, with Hannibal in the kitchen, Mrs. Allen +turned suddenly to Edith, and said: + +"On some such day we shall all be turned into the street. You could +save us, you could save yourself, by taking a kind, rich man for your +lawful husband; but you won't." + +Then Satan, who is always on hand when we are weakest, quoted +Scripture to Edith as he had done once before. The words flashed into +her mind, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." + +In a wild moment of mingled enthusiasm and desperation, she sprang up +before her mother, and said: + +"If I can't pay the interest of the mortgage--if I can't take care of +you all by some kind of work, I will marry him. But if you have a +spark of love for me, save, economize, try to think of some other +way." + +Mrs. Allen smiled triumphantly, and tried in her gratitude to embrace +her daughter, saying: "A kind husband will soon lift all burdens off +your shoulders." The burden on the heart Mrs. Allen did not +understand, but Edith fled from her to her own room. + +In a little while her excitement and enthusiasm died away, and life +began to look gaunt and bare. Even her Saviour's face seemed hidden, +and she only saw an ugly spectre in the future--Simon Crowl. + +In vain she repeated to herself, "He sacrificed Himself for others--so +will I." The nature that He had given her revolted at it all, and +though she could not understand it, she began to find a jarring +discord between herself and all things. + +Mrs. Allen told Mr. Crowl of her success, and he looked upon things as +settled. He came to the house quite often, but did not stay long or +assume any familiarity with Edith. He was a wary old spider; and under +Mrs. Allen's hints, behaved and looked very respectably. He certainly +did the best he could not to appear hideous to Edith, and though she +was very cold, she compelled herself to treat him civilly. + +Perhaps many might have considered Edith's chance a very good one; but +with an almost desperate energy she set her mind at work to find some +other way out of her painful straits. Everything, however, seemed +against her. Mr. McTrump was sick with inflammatory rheumatism. Mrs. +Groody was away, and would not be back till the last of May. On +account of Arden she could not speak to Mrs. Lacey. She tried in vain +to get work, but at that season there was nothing in Pushton which she +could do. Farmers were beginning to get out a little on their wet +lands, and various out-of-door activities to revive after the winter +stagnation. Moreover, money was very scarce at that season of the +year. She at last turned to the garden as her only resource. She +realized that she had scarcely money enough to carry them through May. +Could she get returns from her garden in time? Could it be made to +yield enough to support them? With an almost desperate energy she +worked in it whenever the weather permitted through April, and kept +Hannibal at it also. Indeed, she had little mercy on the old man, and +he wondered at her. One day he ventured: + +"Miss Edie, you jes done kill us both," but his wonder increased as +she muttered: + +"Perhaps it would be the best thing for us both," Then, seeing his +panic-stricken face, she added more kindly, "Hannibal, our money is +getting low, and the garden is our only chance." + +After that he worked patiently without a word and without a thought of +sparing himself. + +Edith insisted on the closest economy in the house, though she was too +sensible to stint herself in food in view of her constant toil. But +one day she detected Mrs. Allen, with her small cunning and her +determination to carry her point, practicing a little wastefulness. +Edith turned on her with such fierceness that she never dared to +repeat the act. Indeed, Edith was becoming very much what she was +before Zell ran away, only in addition there was something akin, at +times, to Zell's own hardness and recklessness, and one day she said +to Edith: + +"What is the matter? You are becoming like me." + +Edith fled to her room, and sobbed and cried and tried to pray till +her strength was gone. The sweet trust and peace she had once enjoyed +seemed like a past dream. She was learning by bitter experience that +it can never be right to do wrong; and that a first false step, like a +false premise, leads to sad conclusions. + +She had insisted that her mother should not speak of the matter till +it became absolutely necessary, therefore Laura, Zell, and none of her +friends could understand her. + +Arden was the most puzzled and pained of all, for she shrank from him +with increasing dread. He was now back at his farm work, though he +said to Edith one day despondently that he had no heart to work, for +the mortgage on their place would probably be foreclosed in the fall. +She longed to tell him how she was situated, but she saw he was unable +to help her, and she dreaded to see the scorn come into his trusting, +loving eyes; she could not endure his absolute confidence in her, and +in his presence her heart ached as if it would break, so she shunned +him till he grew very unhappy, and sighed: + +"There's something wrong. She finds I am not congenial. I shall lose +her friendship," and his aching heart also admitted, as never before, +how dear it was to him. + +Nature was awakening with the rapture of another spring; birds were +coming back to old haunts with ecstatic songs; flowers budding into +their brief but exquisite life, and the trees aglow with fragrant +prophecies of fruit; but a winter of fear and doubt was chilling these +two hearts into something far worse than nature's seeming death. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +SAVED + + + +Edith's efforts still to help Zell to better things were very +pathetic, considering how unhappy and tempted she was herself. She did +try, even when her own heart was breaking, to bring peace and hope to +the poor creature, but she was taught how vain her efforts were, in +her present mood, by Zell's saying, sharply: + +"Physician, heal thyself." + +Though Zell did not understand Edith, she saw that she was almost as +unhappy as herself, and she had lost hope in everybody and everything. +Though she had not admitted it, Edith's words and kindness at first +had excited her wonder, and, perhaps, a faint glimmer of hope; but, as +she saw her sister's face cloud with care, and darken with pain and +fear, she said, bitterly: + +"Why did she talk with me so? It was all a delusion. What is God doing +for her any more than for me?" + +But, in order to give Zell occupation, and something to think about +besides herself, Edith had induced her to take charge of the flowers +in the garden. + +"They won't grow for me," Zell had said at first. "They will wither +when I look at them, and white blossoms will turn black as I bend over +them." + +"Nonsense!" said Edith, with irritation; "won't you do anything to +help me?" + +"Oh, certainly," wearily answered Zell. "I will do the work just as +you tell me. If they do die, it don't matter. We can eat or sell +them." So Zell began to take care of the flowers, doing the work in a +stealthy manner, and hiding when any one came. + +The month of May was unusually warm, and Edith was glad, for it would +hasten things forward. That upon which she now bent almost agonized +effort and thought was the possibility of paying the interest on the +mortgage by the middle of June, when it was due. All hope concentrated +on her strawberries, as they would be the first crop worth mentioning +that she could depend on from her place. She gave the plants the most +careful attention. Not a weed was suffered to grow, and between the +rows she placed carefully, with her own hands, leaves she raked up in +the orchard, so that the ground might be kept moist and the fruit +clean. Almost every hour of the day her eyes sought the strawberry- +bed, as the source of her hope. If that failed her, no bleeding human +sacrifice in all the cruel past could surpass in agony her fate. + +The vines began to blossom with great promise, and at first she almost +counted them in her eager expectation. Then the long rows looked like +little banks of snow, and she exulted over the prospect. Laura was +once about to pick one of the blossoms, but she stopped her almost +fiercely. She would get up in the night, and stand gazing at the lines +of white, as she could trace them in the darkness across the garden. +So the days passed on till the last of May, and the blossoms grew +scattering, but there were multitudes of little green berries, from +the size of a pea to that of her thimble, and some of them began to +have a white look. She so minutely watched them develop that she could +have almost defined the progress day by day. Once Zell looked at her +wonderingly, and said: + +"Edith, you are crazy over that strawberry-bed. I believe you worship +it." + +For a time Edith's hopes daily rose higher as the vines gave finer +promise, but during the last week of May a new and terrible source of +danger revealed itself, a danger that she knew not how to cope with-- +drought. + +It had not rained since the middle of May. She saw that many of her +young and tender vegetables were wilting, but the strawberries, +mulched with leaves, did not appear to mind it at first. Still she +knew they would suffer soon, unless there was rain. Most anxiously she +watched the skies. Their serenity mocked her when she was so clouded +with care. Wild storms would be better than these balmy, sunny days. + +The first of June came, the second, third, and fourth, and here and +there a berry was turning red, but the vines were beginning to wilt. +The suspense became so great she could hardly endure it. Her faith in +God began to waver. Every breath almost was a prayer for rain, but the +sunny days passed like mocking smiles. + +"Is there a God?" she queried desperately. "Can I have been deceived +in all my past happy experience?" She shuddered at the answer that the +tempter suggested, and yet, like a drowning man, she still clung to +her faith. + +During the long evening, she and Hannibal sought to save the bed by +carrying water from the well, but they could do so little, it only +seemed to show them how utterly dependent they were on the natural +rain from heaven; but the skies seemed laughing at her pain and fear. +Moreover, she noticed that those they watered appeared injured rather +than helped, as is ever the case where it is insufficiently done, and +she saw that she must helplessly wait. + +Arden Lacey had been away for a week, and, returning in the dusk of +the evening, saw her at work watering, before she had come to this +conclusion. His heart was hungry, even for the sight of her, and he +longed for her to let him stop for a little chat as of old. So he +said, timidly: + +"Good-evening, Miss Allen, haven't you a word to welcome me back +with?" + +"Oh!" cried Edith, not heeding his salutation, "why don't it rain! I +shall lose all my strawberries." + +His voice jarred upon her heart, now too full, and she ran into the +house to hide her feelings, and left him. Even the thought of him now, +in her morbid state, began to pierce her like a sword. + +"She thinks more of her paltry strawberry-bed than of me," muttered +Arden, and he stalked angrily homeward. "What is the matter with Miss +Allen?" he asked his mother abruptly. "I don't understand her." + +"Nor I either," said Mrs. Lacey with a sigh. + +The next morning was very warm, and Edith saw that the day would be +hotter than any that preceded. A dry wind sprang up and it seemed +worse than the sun. The vines began to wither early after the coolness +of the night, and those she had watered suffered the most, and seemed +to say to her mockingly: + +"You can't do anything." + +"Oh, heaven!" cried Edith, almost in despair, "there is a black hand +pushing me down." + +In an excited, feverish manner she roamed restlessly around and could +settle down to nothing. She scanned the horizon for a cloud, as the +shipwrecked might for a sail. + +"Edie, what is the matter?" said Laura, putting her arms about her +sister. + +"It won't rain," said Edith, bursting into tears. "My home, my +happiness, everything depends on rain, and look at these skies." + +"But won't He send it?" asked Laura, gently. + +"Why don't He, then?" said Edith, almost in irritation. Then, in a +sudden passion of grief, she hid her face in her sister's lap, and +sobbed, "Oh, Laura, Laura, I feel I am losing my faith in Him. Why +does He treat me so?" + +Here Laura's face grew troubled and fearful also. Her faith in Christ +was so blended with her faith in Edith that she could not separate +them in a moment. "I don't understand it, Edie," she faltered. "He +seems to have taken care of me, and has been very kind since that-- +that night But I don't understand your feeling so." + +"Oh, oh, oh!" sobbed Edith, "I don't know what to think--what to +believe; and I fear I shall hurt your faith," and she shut herself up +in her room, and looked despairingly out to where the vines were +drooping in the fierce heat. + +"If they don't get help to-day, my hopes will wither like their +leaves," she said, with pallid lips. As the sun declined in the west, +she went out and stood beside them, as one might by a dying friend. +Her fresh young face seemed almost growing aged and wrinkled under the +ordeal. She had prayed that afternoon, as never before in her life, +for help, and now, with a despairing gesture upward, she said: + +"Look at that brazen sky!" + +But the noise of the opening gate caused her to look thither, and +there was Arden entering, with a great barrel on wheels, which was +drawn by a horse. His heart, so weak toward her, had relented during +the day. "I vowed to serve her, and I will," he thought. "I will be +her slave, if she will permit." + +Edith did not understand at first, and he came toward her so humbly, +as if to ask a great favor, that it would have been comic, had not his +sincerity made it pathetic. + +"Miss Allen," he said, "I saw you trying to water your berries. +Perhaps I can do it better, as I have here the means of working on a +larger scale." + +Edith seized his hand and said, with tears: "You are like an angel of +light; how can I thank you enough?" + +Her manner puzzled him to-night quite as much as on the previous +occasion. "Why does she act as if her life depended on these few +berries?" he vainly asked himself. "They can't be so poor as to be in +utter want. I wish she would speak frankly to me." + +In her case, as in thousands of others, it would have been so much +better if she had. + +Then Edith said, a little dubiously, "I hurt the vines when I tried to +water them." + +"I know enough about gardening to understand that," said Arden, with a +smile. "If the ground is not thoroughly soaked it does hurt them. But +see," and he poured the water around the vines till the dry leaves +swam in it. "That will last two days, and then I will water these +again. I can go over half the bed thoroughly one night, and the other +half the next night; and so we will keep them along till rain comes." + +She looked at him as if he were a messenger come to release her from a +dungeon, and murmured, in a low, sweet voice: + +"Mr. Lacey, you are as kind as a brother to me." + +A warm flush of pleasure mantled his face and neck, and he turned away +to hide his feelings, but said: + +"Miss Edith, this is nothing to what I would do for you." + +She had it on her lips to tell him how she was situated, but he +hastened away to fill his barrel at a neighboring pond. She watched +him go to and fro in his rough, working garb, and he seemed to her the +very flower of chivalry. + +Her eyes grew lustrous with admiration, gratitude, hope, and--yes, +love, for before the June twilight deepened into night it was revealed +in the depths of her heart that she loved Arden Lacey, and that was +the reason that she had kept away from him since she had made the +hateful promise. She had thought it only friendship, now she knew that +it was love, and that his scorn and anger would be the bitterest +ingredient of all in her self-immolation. + +For two long hours he went to and fro unweariedly, and then startled +her by saying in the distance on his way home, "I will come again to- +morrow evening," and was gone. He was afraid of himself, lest in his +strong feeling he might break his implied promise not even to suggest +his love, when she came to thank him, and so, in self-distrustfulness, +he was beginning to shun her also. + +An unspeakable burden of fear was lifted from her heart, and hope, +sweet, warm, and rosy, kept her eyes waking, but rested her more than +sleep. In the morning she saw that the watering had greatly revived +one half of the bed, and that all through the hot day they did not +wilt, while the unwatered part looked very sick. + +Old Crowl also had seen the proceeding in the June twilight, and did +not like it. "I must put a spoke in his wheel," he said. So the next +afternoon he met Arden in the village, and blustered up to him, +saying: + +"Look here, young Lacey, what were you doing at the Allens' last +night?" + +"None of your business." + +"Yes, it is my business, too, as you may find out to your cost. I am +engaged to marry Miss Edith Allen, and guess it's my business who's +hanging around there. I warn you to keep away." Mr. Crowl had put the +case truly, and yet with characteristic cunning. He was positively +engaged to Edith, though she was only conditionally engaged to him. + +"It's an accursed lie," thundered Arden, livid with rage, "and I warn +you to leave--you make me dangerous." + +"Oh, ho; touches you close, does it? I am sorry for you, but it's +true, nevertheless." + +Arden looked as if he would rend him, but by a great effort he +controlled himself, and in a low, meaning voice said: + +"If you have lied to me this afternoon, woe be unto you," and he +turned on his heel and walked straight to Edith, where she stood at +work among her grapevines, breaking off some of the too thickly +budding branches. He was beside her before she heard him, and the +moment she looked into his white, stern face, she saw that something +had happened. + +"Miss Allen," he said, abruptly, "I heard a report about you this +afternoon. I did not believe it; I could not; but it came so direct, +that I give you a chance to refute it. Your word will be sufficient +for me. It would be against all the world. Is there anything between +you and Simon Crowl?" + +Her confusion was painful, and for a moment she could not speak, but +stood trembling before him. + +In his passion, he seized her roughly by the arm and said, hoarsely, +"In a word, yes or no?" + +His manner offended her proud spirit, and she looked him angrily in +the face and said, haughtily; + +"Yes." + +He recoiled from her as if he had been stung. + +Her anger died away in a moment, and she leaned against the grape- +trellis for support. + +"Do you love him?" he faltered, his bronzed cheek blanching. + +"No," she gasped. + +The blood rushed furiously into his face, and he took an angry stride +toward her. She cowered before him, but almost wished that he would +strike her dead. In a voice hoarse with rage, he said: + +"This, then, is the end of our friendship. This is the best that your +religion has taught you. If not your pitiful faith, then has not your +woman's nature told you that neither priest nor book can marry you to +that coarse lump of earth?" and he turned on his heel and strode away. + +His mother was frightened as she saw his face. "What has happened?" +she said, starting up. He stared at her almost stupidly for a moment. +Then he said, in a stony voice: + +"The worst that ever can happen to me in this or any world. If the +lightning had burned me to a cinder, I could not be more utterly +bereft of all that tends to make a good man. Edith Allen has sold +herself to old Crowl. Some priest is going through a farce they will +call a marriage, and all the good people will say, 'How well she has +done!' What a miserable delusion this religious business is! You had +better give it up, mother, as I do, here and now." + +"Hush, my son," said Mrs. Lacey, solemnly. "You have only seen Edith +Allen. I have seen _Jesus Christ._ + +"There is some mystery about this," she added, after a moment's +painful thought. "I will go and see her at once." + +He seized her hand, saying: + +"Have I not been a good son to you?" + +"Yes, Arden." + +"Then by all I have ever been to you, and as you wish my love to +continue, go not near her again." + +"But, Arden--" + +"Promise me," he said, sternly. + +"Well," said the poor woman, with a deep sigh, "not without your +permission." + +From that time forth, Arden seemed as if made of stone. + +After he was gone Edith walked with uncertain steps to the little +arbor, and sat down as if stunned. She lost all idea of time. After it +was dark, Hannibal called her in, and made her take a cup of tea. She +then went mechanically to her room, but not to sleep. Arden's dreadful +words kept repeating themselves over and over again. + +"O God!" she exclaimed, in the darkness, "whither am I drifting? Must +I be driven to this awful fate in order to provide for those dependent +upon me? Cannot bountiful Nature feed us? Wilt Thou not, in mercy, +send one drop of rain? O Jesus, where is Thy mercy?" + +The next morning the skies were still cloudless, and she scowled +darkly at the sunny dawn. Then, in sudden alternation of mood, she +stretched her bare, white arms toward the little farmhouse, and +sighed, in tones of tremulous pathos: + +"Oh, Arden, Arden! I would rather die at your feet than live in a +palace with him." + +She sent down word that she was ill, and that she would not come down. +Laura, Mrs. Allen, and even Zell, came to her, but she kissed them +wearily, and sent them away. She saw that there was deep anxiety on +all their faces. Pretty soon Hannibal came up with a cup of coffee. + +"You must drink it, Miss Edie," he said, "'cause we'se all a-leanin' +on you." + +Well-meaning words, but tending unconsciously to confirm her desperate +purpose to sacrifice herself for them. + +She lay with her face buried in the pillow all day. She knew that +their money was almost gone, that provisions were scanty in the house, +and to her morbid mind bags of gold were piled up before her, and +Simon Crowl, as an ugly spectre, was beckoning her toward them. + +As she lay in a dull lethargy of pain in the afternoon, a heavy jar of +thunder aroused her. She sprang up instantly, and ran out bare-headed +to the little rise of ground behind the house, and there, in the west, +was a great black cloud. The darker and nearer it grew, the more her +face brightened. It was a strange thing to see that fair young girl +looking toward the threatening storm with eager, glad expectancy, as +if it were her lover. The heavy and continued roll of the thunder, +like the approaching roar of battle, was sweeter to her than love's +whispers. She saw with dilating eyes the trees on the distant +mountain's brow toss and writhe in the tempest; she heard the fall of +rain-drops on the foliage of the mountain's side as if they were the +feet of an army coming to her rescue. A few large ones, mingled with +hail, fell around her like scattering shots, and she put out her hands +to catch them. The fierce gusts caught up her loosened hair and it +streamed away behind her. There was a blinding flash, and the branches +of a tall locust near came quivering down--she only smiled. + +But dismay and trembling fear overwhelmed her as the shower passed on +to the north. She could see it raining hard a mile away, but the drops +ceased to fall around her. The deep reverberations rolled away in the +distance, and in the west there was a long line of light. As the +twilight deepened, the whole storm was below the horizon, only sending +up angry flashes as it thundered on to parts unknown. With clasped +hands and despairing eyes, Edith gazed after it, as the wrecked +floating on a raft might watch a ship sail away, and leave them to +perish on the wide ocean. + +She walked slowly down to the little arbor, and leaned wearily back on +the rustic seat. She saw night come on in breathless peace. Not a leaf +stirred. She saw the moon rise over the eastern hills, as brightly and +serenely as if its rays would not fall on one sad face. + +Hannibal called, but she did not answer, Then he came out to her, and +put the cup of tea to her lips, and made her drink it. She obeyed +mechanically. + +"Poor chile, poor chile," he murmured, "I wish ole Hannibal could die +for you." + +She lifted her face to him with such an expression that he hastened +away to hide his tears. But she sat still, as if in a dream, and yet +she felt that the crisis had come, and that before she left that place +she must come to some decision. Reason would be dethroned if she lived +much longer in such suspense and irresolution. And yet she sat still +in a dreamy stupor, the reaction of her strong excitement. It seemed, +in a certain sense, peaceful and painless, and she did not wish to +goad herself out of it. + +"It may be like the last sleep before execution," she thought, +"therefore make the most of it," and her thoughts wandered at will. + +A late robin came flying home to the arbor where the nest was, and +having twittered out a little vesper-song, put its head under its +wing, near his mate, which sat brooding in the nest over some little +eggs, and the thought stole into her heart, "Will God take care of +them and not me?" and she watched the peaceful sleep of the family +over her head as if it were an emblem of faith. + +Then a sudden breeze swept a spray of roses against her face, and +their delicate perfume was like the "still small voice" of love, and +the thought passed dreamily across Edith's mind, "Will God do so much +for that little cluster of roses and yet do nothing for me?" + +How near the Father was to His child! In this calm that followed her +long passionate struggle, His mighty but gentle Spirit could make +itself felt, and it stole into the poor girl's bruised heart with +heavenly suggestion and healing power. The happy days when she +followed Jesus and sat daily at His feet were recalled. Her sin was +shown to her, not in anger, but in the loving reproachfulness of the +Saviour's look upon faithless Peter, and a voice seemed to ask in her +soul, "How could you turn away your trust from Him to anything else? +How could you think it right to do so great a wrong? How could you so +trample upon the womanly nature that He gave you as to think of +marrying where neither love nor God would sanction?" + +Jesus seemed to stand before her, and point up to the robins, saying, +"I feed them. I fed the five thousand. I feed the world. I can feed +you and yours. Trust me. Do right. In trying to save yourself you will +destroy yourself." + +With a divine impulse, she threw herself on the floor of the arbor, +and cried: + +"Jesus, I cast myself at Thy feet. I throw myself on Thy mercy. When I +look the world around, away from Thee, I see only fear and torment. If +I die, I will perish at Thy feet." + +Was it the moonlight only that made the night luminous? No, for the +glory of the Lord shone around, and the peace that "passeth all +understanding" came flowing into her soul like a shining river. The +ugly phantoms that had haunted her vanished. The "black hand that +seemed pushing her down," became her Father's hand, shielding and +sustaining. + +She rose as calm and serene as the summer evening and went straight to +Mrs. Allen's room and said: "Mother, I will never marry Simon Crowl." + +Her mother began to cry, and say piteously: + +"Then we shall all be turned into the street." + +"What the future will be I can't tell," said Edith, gently but firmly. +"I will work for you, I will beg for you, I will starve with you, but +I will never marry Simon Crowl, nor any other man that I do not love." +And pressing a kiss on her mother's face, she went to her room, and +soon was lost in the first refreshing sleep that she had had for a +long time. + +She was wakened toward morning by the sound of rain, and, starting up, +heard its steady, copious downfall. In a sudden ecstasy of gratitude +she sprang up, opened the blinds and looked out. The moon had gone +down, and through the darkness the rain was falling heavily; she felt +it upon her forehead, her bare neck and arms, and it seemed to her +Heaven's own baptism into a new and stronger faith and a happier life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +CLOSING SCENES + + + +The clouds were clearing away when Edith came down late the next +morning, and all saw that the clouds had passed from her brow. + +"Bress de Lord, Miss Edie, you'se yoursef again!" said Hannibal, +joyfully. "I neber see a shower do such a heap ob good afore." + +"No," said Edith, sadly; "I was myself. I lost my Divine Friend and +Helper, and I then became myself--poor, weak, faulty Edith Allen. But, +thanks to His mercy, I have found Him again, and so hope to be the +better self that He helped me to be before." + +Zell looked at her with a sudden wonder, and went out and stayed among +her flowers all day. + +Laura came and put her arms around her neck, and said, + +"Oh, Edie, I am so glad! What you said set me to fearing and doubting; +but I am sure we can trust Him." + +Mrs. Allen sighed drearily, and said, "I don't understand it at all." + +But old Hannibal slapped his hands in true Methodist style, +exclaiming, "Dat's it! Trow away de ole heart! Get a new one! Bress de +Lord!" + +Edith went out into the garden, and saw that there were a great many +berries ripe; then she hastened to the hotel, and said: + +"Oh, Mrs. Groody, for Heaven's sake, won't you help me sell my +strawberries up here?" + +"Yes, my dear," was the hearty response; "both for your sake and the +strawberries, too. We get them from the city, and would much rather +have fresh country ones." + +Edith returned with her heart thrilling with hope, and set to work +picking as if every berry was a ruby, and in a few hours she had six +quarts of fragrant fruit. Malcom had lent her little baskets, and +Hannibal took them up to the hotel, for Arden would not even look +toward the little cottage any more. The old servant came back grinning +with delight, and gave Edith a dollar and a half. + +The next day ten quarts brought two dollars and a half. Then they +began to ripen rapidly, the rain having greatly improved them, and +Edith, with considerable help from the others, picked twenty, thirty, +and fifty quarts a day. She employed a stout boy from the village, to +help her, and, through him, she soon had quite a village trade also. +He had a percentage on the sales, and, therefore, was very sharp in +disposing of them. + +How Edith gloated over her money! how, with more than miserly eyes, +she counted it over every night, and pressed it to her lips! + +In the complete absorption of the past few weeks Edith had not noticed +the change going on in Zell. The poor creature was surprised and +greatly pleased that the flowers grew so well for her. Every opening +blossom was a new revelation, and their sweet perfume stole into her +wounded heart like balm. The blue violets seemed like children's eyes +peeping timidly at her; and the pansies looked so bright and saucy +that she caught herself smiling back at them. The little black and +brown seeds she planted came up so promptly that it seemed as if they +wanted to see her as much as she did them. + +"Isn't it queer," she said one day to herself, "that such pretty +things can come out of such ugly little things." Nothing in nature +seemed to turn away from her, any more than would nature's God. The +dumb life around began to speak to her in many and varied voices, and +she who fled from companionship with her own kind would sit and chirp +and talk to the birds, as if they understood her. And they did seem to +grow strangely familiar, and would almost eat crumbs out of her hand. + +One day in June she said to Hannibal, who was working near, "Isn't it +strange the flowers grow so well for me?" + +"Why shouldn't dey grow for you, Miss Zell?" asked he, straightening +his old back up. + +"Good, innocent Hannibal, how indeed should you know anything about +it?" + +"Yes, I does know all 'bout it," said he, earnestly, and he came to +her where she stood by a rosebush. "Does you see dis white rose?" + +"Yes," said Zell, "it opened this morning. I've been watching it." + +Poor Hannibal could not read print, but he seemed to understand this +exquisite passage in nature's open book, for he put his black finger +on the rose (which made it look whiter than before), and commenced +expounding it as a preacher might his text. "Now look at it sharp, +Miss Zell, 'cause it'll show you I does know all 'bout it. It's white, +isn't it?" + +"Yes," said Zell, eagerly, for Hannibal held the attention of his +audience. + +"Dat means pure, doesn't it?" continued he. + +"Yes," said Zell, looking sadly down. + +"And it's sweet, isn't it? Now dat means lub." + +And Zell looked hopefully up. + +"And now, dear chile," said he, giving her a little impressive nudge, +"see whar de white rose come from--right up out of de brack, ugly +ground." + +Having concluded his argument and made his point, the simple orator +began his application, and Zell was leaning toward him in her +interest. + +"De good Lord, he make it grow to show what He can do for us. Miss +Zell," he said, in an awed whisper, "my ole heart was as brack as dat +ground, but de blessed Jesus turn it as white as dis rose. Miss Edie, +Lor' bless her, telled me 'bout Him, and I'se found it all true. Now, +doesn't I know 'bout it? I knows dat de good Jesus can turn de +brackest heart in de world jes like dis rose, make it white and pure, +and fill it up wid de sweetness of lub. I knows all 'bout it." + +He spoke with the power of absolute certainty and strong feeling, +therefore his hearer was deeply moved. + +"Hannibal," she said, coming close to him, and putting her hand on his +shoulder, "do you think Jesus could turn my heart white?" + +"Sartin, Miss Zell," answered he, stoutly. "Jes as easy as He make dis +white rose grow." + +"Would you mind asking Him? It seems to me I would rather pray out +here among the flowers," she said, in low, tremulous tones. + +So Hannibal concluded his simple, but most effective, service by +kneeling down by his pulpit, the rosebush, and praying: + +"Bressed Jesus, guv dis dear chile a new heart, 'cause she wants it, +and you wants her to hab it. Make it pure and full of lub. You can do +it, dear Jesus. You knows you can. Now, jes please do it. +_Amen_." + +Zell's responsive "Amen" was like a note from an AEolian harp. + +"Hannibal," said she, looking wistfully at him, "I think I feel +better. I think I feel it growing white." + +"Now jes look here, Miss Zell," said he, giving her a bit of pastoral +counsel before going back to his work, "don't you keep lookin' at your +heart, and seein' how it feels, or you'll get discouraged. See dis +rose agin? It don't look at itself. It jes looks up at de sun. So you +look straight at Jesus, and your heart grow whiter ebery day." + +And Hannibal and the flower did gradually lead poor Zell to Him who +"taketh away the sins of the world," and He said to her as to one of +old, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." + +On the evening of the 14th of June, Edith had more than enough to pay +the interest due on the 15th, and she was most anxious to have it +settled. She was standing at the gate waiting for Hannibal to join her +as escort, when she saw Arden Lacey coming toward her. He had not +looked at her since that dreadful afternoon, and was now about to pass +her without notice, though from his manner she saw he was conscious of +her presence. He looked so worn and changed that her heart yearned +toward him. A sudden thought occurred to her, and she said: + +"Mr. Lacey." + +He kept right on, and paid no heed to her. + +There was a mingling of indignation and pathos in her voice when she +spoke again. + +"I appeal to you as a woman, and no matter what I am, if you are a +true man, you will listen." + +There was that in her tone and manner that reminded him of the dark +rainy night when they first met. + +He turned instantly, but he approached her with a cold, silent bow. + +"I must go to the village to-night. I wish your protection," she said, +in a voice she tried vainly to render steady. + +He again bowed silently, and they walked to the village together +without a word. Hannibal came out in time to see them disappear down +the road, one on one side of it, and one on the other. + +"Well now, dey's both quar," he said, scratching his white head with +perplexity, "but one ting is mighty sartin, I'se glad my ole jints is +saved dat tramp." + +Edith stopped at the door of Mr. Crowl's office, and Arden, for the +first time, spoke hastily: + +"I can't go in there." + +"I hope you are not afraid," said Edith, in a tone that made him step +forward quick enough. + +Mr. Crowl looked as if he could not believe his eyes, but Edith gave +him no time to collect his wits, but by the following little speech +quite overwhelmed both him and Arden, though with different emotions. + +"There, sir, is the interest due on the mortgage. There is a slight +explanation due you and also this gentleman here, who _was_ my friend. +There are four persons in our family dependent on me for support and +shelter. We were all so poor and helpless that it seemed impossible to +maintain ourselves in independence. You make a proposition through my +mother, never to me, that might be called generous if it had not been +coupled with certain threats of prompt foreclosure if not accepted. In +an hour of weakness and for the sake of the others, I said to my +mother, never to you, that if I could not pay the interest and could +not support the family, I would marry you. But I did very wrong, and I +became so unhappy and desperate in view of this partial promise, that +I thought I should lose my reason. But in the hour of my greatest +darkness, when I saw no way out of our difficulties, I was led to see +how wrongly I had acted, and to resolve that under no possible +circumstances would I marry you, nor any man to whom I could not give +a true wife's love. Since that time I have been able honestly to earn +the money there; and in a few days more I will pay you the fifty +dollars that my mother borrowed of you. So please give me my receipt." + +"And remember henceforth," said Arden, sternly, "that this lady has a +protector." + +Simon was sharp enough to see that he was beaten, so he signed the +receipt and gave it to Edith without a word. They left his office and +started homeward. When out of the village Arden said timidly: + +"Can you forgive me, Miss Edith?" + +"Can you forgive me?" answered she, even more humbly. + +They stopped in the road and grasped each other's hands with a warmth +more expressive than all words. Then they went on silently again. At +the gate Edith said timidly: + +"Won't you come in?" + +"I dare not, Miss Allen," said Arden, gravely, and with a dash of +bitterness in his voice "I am a man of honor with all my faults, and I +would keep the promise I made you in the letter I wrote one year ago. +I must see very little of you," he continued, in a very heartsick +tone, "but let me serve you just the same." + +Edith's face seemed to possess more than human loveliness as it grew +tender and gentle in the radiance of the full moon, and he looked at +it with the hunger of a famished heart. + +"But you made the promise to me, did you not?" she asked in a low +tone. + +"Certainly," said Arden. + +"Then it seems to me that I have the right to absolve you from the +promise," she continued in a still lower tone, and a face like a +damask-rose in moonlight. + +"Miss Allen--Edith--" said Arden, "oh, for Heaven's sake, be kind. +Don't trifle with me." + +Edith had restrained her feelings so long that she was ready to either +laugh or cry, so with a peal of laughter, that rang out like a chime +of silver bells, she said: + +"Like the fat abbot in the story, I give you full absolution and +plenary indulgence." + +He seized her hand and carried it to his lips: "Edith," he pleaded, in +a low, tremulous voice, "will you let me be your slave?" + +"Not a bit of it," said she, sturdily. She added, looking shyly up at +him, "What should I do with a slave?" + +Arden was about to kneel at her feet, but she said: + +"Nonsense! If you must get on your knees, come and kneel to my +strawberry-bed--you ought to thank that, I can tell you." And so the +matter-of-fact girl, who could not abide sentiment, got through a +scene that she greatly dreaded. + +They could see the berries reddening among the green leaves, and the +night wind blowing across them was like a gale from Araby the Blest. + +"Were it not for this strawberry-bed you would not have obtained +absolution to-night. But, Arden," she added, seriously, "here is your +way out of trouble, as well as mine. We are near good markets. Give up +your poor, slipshod farming (I'm plain, you see) and raise fruit. I +will supply you with vines. We will go into partnership. You show what +a man can do, and I will show what a girl can do." + +He took her hand and looked at her so fondly that she hid her face on +his shoulder. He stroked her head and said, in a half-mirthful tone: + +"Ah, Edie, Edie, woman once got man out of a garden, but you, I +perceive, are destined to lead me into one; and any garden where you +are will be Eden to me." + +She looked up, with her face suddenly becoming grave and wistful, and +said: + +"Arden, God will walk in my garden in the cool of the day. You won't +hide from Him, will you?" + +"No," he answered, earnestly. "I now feel sure that, through my faith +in you, I shall learn to have faith in Him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +LAST WORDS + + + +Edith did sustain the family on the products of her little place. And, +more than that, the yield from her vines and orchard was so abundant +that she aided Arden to meet the interest of the mortgage on the Lacey +place, so that Mr. Crowl could not foreclose that autumn, as he +intended. She so woke her dreamy lover up that he soon became a keen, +masterful man of business, and, at her suggestion, at once commenced +the culture of small fruits, she giving him a good start from her own +place. + +Rose took the situation of nurse with Judge Clifford's married +daughter, having the care of two little children. She thus secured a +pleasant, sheltered home, where she was treated with great kindness. +Instead of running in debt, as in New York, she was able to save the +greater part of her wages, and in two years had enough ahead to take +time to learn the dressmakers' trade thoroughly, for which she had a +taste. But a sensible young mechanic, who had long been attentive, at +last persuaded her to make him a happy home. + +Mrs. Lacey's prayers were effectual in the case of her husband, for, +to the astonishment of the whole neighborhood, he reformed. Laura +remained a pale home-blossom, sheltered by Edith's love. + +With the blossoms she loved, Zell faded away in the autumn, but her +death was like that of the flowers, in the full hope of the glad +springtime of a new life. As her eyes closed and she breathed her last +sigh out on Edith's bosom, old Hannibal sobbed-- + +"She's--a white rose--now--sure 'nuff." + +Arden and Edith were married the following year, on the 14th of June, +the anniversary of their engagement. Edith greatly shocked Mrs. Allen +by having the ceremony performed in the garden. + +"Why not?" she said. "God once married a couple there." + +Mrs. Groody, Mr. and Mrs. McTrump, Mrs. Ranger, Mrs. Hart and her +daughters, and quite a number of other friends were present. + +Hannibal stood by the white rosebush, that was again in bloom, and +tears of joy, mingling with those of sorrow, bedewed the sweet +flowers. + +And Malcom stood up, after the ceremony, and said, with a certain +dignity that for a moment hushed and impressed all present: + +"Tho' I'm a little mon, I sometimes ha' great tho'ts, an' I have +learned to ken fra my gudewife there, an' this sweet blossom o' the +Lord's, that woman can bring a' the wourld to God if she will. That's +what she can do." + +THE END + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WHAT CAN SHE DO? *** + +This file should be named whtcn10.txt or whtcn10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, whtcn11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, whtcn10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 + +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/whtcn10.zip b/old/whtcn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d89265 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtcn10.zip |